Amazing Stories Quarterly v03n04 (1930 Fall) (Gorgon776&Ufikus)

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FALL EDITION

1930

Scientifiction Stories by

Aladra Septama Cyril G. W ates

John W. Campbell, Jr.

Einstein Explained
in Fiction!

“THE PRINCE OF LIARS”

By L. Taylor Hansen

The big October AMAZING STORIES is
crowded with many treats too good to miss — and
one of these is this fascinating story which pene-
trates, in easily followed paths, the mysteries pro-
pounded by Einstein. In this beautiful story of
relativity and the fourth dimension, many of
your pet theories may be destroyed; but you
will get so much more in their place that you
will be well compensated for their loss.

“SKYLARK THREE”

By Edward E. Smith , Ph.D.

Already readers have overwhelmed us with praise
of this great sequel to "The Skylark of Space.”
Yet the concluding chapters of this tale of a
Galactic Cruise which ushered in Universal Civ-
ilization are even more thrilling. They tran-
scend description. You must read them for
yourself.

“THE MAN FROM THE MOON”

By Otis Adelbert Kline

What was the origin of races? Did Yellow, Black
and White start in similar manner? Here are
some highly ingenious new ideas for inter-stellar
warfare and some original explanations of several
phenomena which are still a matter of conjecture.

“THE DYNASTY OF THE
BLUE-BLACK RAYS”

By Milton R. Peril

Here is an all-absorbing sto • ot a lost civiliza
tion and a vanished race, based on fact and
crowded with scientific adventure.

“THE MAN WHO SAW THE FUTURE”

By Edmond Hamilton

So many amazing inventions are brought out in
rapid succession today that it seems almost im-
possible to conceive the fantastic things which
may startle the world of the future — if only 50
years hence. Don’t miss this story.

Enjoy All These Stories in the October

ONLY . _ ONLY

s To *?/*:

^ Buy It Now!

AMAZING STORIES IS SOLD AT NEWSSTANDS EVERYWHERE

> :: Fall, 1930 "W 5

Amazing Stories

Quarterly

B, A. Mackinnon. H, K. Fly, Publishers

Prize Editorial (What Scientifiction Means to Many) 435

By James E. Suiter

A Modern Prometheus

By Cyril G. Wales

Illustrated by Wesso

The Black Star Passes 492

By John W. Campbell, Jr.

Illustrated by Wesso

Boomeranging ’Round the Moon 524

By David H. Keller, M.D,

Illustrated by Morey

Terrors of Arelli 530

By Aladra Septama

Illustrated by Wesso

Dr. Immortelle 560

By Kathleen Luckvoick

Illustrated by Morey

s, The Triple Ray 529 J

% By R. V. Hap pel M

Editorials from Our Readers 575

yjSlk Your Viewpoint 576 Jmm

m iiiusiraiion oy .viorey KgM&mMEffi

The cover of this issue depicts an un-
© x P ecte( I development during a battle jjfiW BP 'Opl
with the enemy, taken from the fflwzl -.--
iW isSL story entitled, “The Black Star ■Jmm k

Passes,” bv John W, Camp-
ben, Jr.

October 20, 1930

AMAZING STORIES QUARTERLY. Published at 1S4-10 Jamaica Avenue, Jamaica, N. T. Entered as second-class matter at Jamaica, N. Y., under the act of March 3, 1S79.

Title’ registered XL S. Patent Office. Copyright, 1930, by Radio-Science Publications, Inc. Editorial and Executive Offices, 381 Fourth Avenue, New York City.
Subscription price is $1.75 8 year in XJ. S. and Possessions; $2.25 a year in Canada and Foreign countries; single copies 50 cents each. Publishers are not responsible for manu-
scripts lost, although every care is taken for their safety.

434

AMAZING STORIES QUARTERLY

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T. O'CONOR SLOANE, Ph D.. Editor MIRIAM BOURNE, Managing Editor

C. A. BRANDT, Literary Editor WILBUR C. WHITEHEAD, Literary Editor
Editorial and General Offices; 381 Fourth Avenue, New York City

What Scientifiction Means to Man

By James E. Suiter

M AN exists. Why or to what end, we know not.
Scientifically we refer to him as the Genus Homo;
the highest form of life that has evolved from
that basic element of all living matter — protoplasm.

For years Man has struggled against the aggressive
forces of Nature. It would now seem he has conquered.
The Earth bows itself at his will. He is the ruler supreme
■ — on his own world.

Ten million years till the sun dims itself to a dull glow,
and gees out. So say the astronomers. Ten million years
for ?-Ian to ring on his mundane bonds and leave a doomed
world behind. Ten million years in which to attain the
peak of his earthly destiny. Will he do it? When the sun
has changed to a red-glowing mass in the heavens — will he
then be able to leave his ancient home — to follow out a
chosen future on some - distant star ? That question lies
with us of today.

This old world is weary of war. It is ready to do practi-
cally anything to abolish Mars from his pedestal. Another
war and it will be glad to do everything. So, as things
now run, the armies and navies of the world will have
ceased to exist within fifty years. A hundred years will
see the nations of the earth under the rule of a single politi-
cal system. The manufacture of death-dealing weapons
will have long been forgotten. Man may stop at this
height of culture or go soaring to undreamt heights. These
are things for the evolutionists to settle. And now man has
those ten million years in which to’ advance his civilization
and, mayhap, to people' the seven (now- eight) remaining
planets of the solar system.

But what of the decillion or more other planets cir-
cling the distant stars, what of the life on them?
Suppos-e a civilization dwelling on one of these
takes the offensive against this Man of the
gi future. There could be but one result ; Man
would simply cease to exist. And consider-
ing the fact that he' would be without the
simplest weapons of warfare, what
more could one expect? A sudden
attack out of the blackness of space,
the metropolises of the world
destroyed, and the final hunt-

ing down of the few remaining remnants of humanity:
that would be the inglorious result of a preceding neglect.

Such a catastrophe may seem a little too distant, or so
novel that the mind can not at first realize it. But cold
reasoning, accompanied by the activities of one’s imagina-
tion, will show it as not only being quite possible, but also
with the odds greatly in its favor. And now let us see
how readily scientifiction fits into this case.

An appeal made to the nations of the world at the present
time to retain their armaments on the grounds that such a
disaster might happen to their descendents would be laughed
at as foolish imaginings. But let us suppose that in the
field of literature scientifiction is as well known and as
widely read as, for instance, the modern detective novel.
Think of the wholly different light in which the possibility
would be regarded. No longer would it seem something
hopelessly imaginary, but a concrete reality, a thing which
had been encountered and solved countless times in one’s
explorations into the realms of scientifiction.

Nor does the utilitarian value of scientifiction necessarily
cease here. There are countless other examples of its
benefits to humanity. Let me enumerate one more of
these, a little reminiscent of the first, perhaps, but to some
more realistic.

The statement of Dr. L, O. Howard, former Chief of
the Bureau of Entomology of the United States Department
of Agriculture, that the day would come when Man would
go down in hopeless defeat before the insect hordes, meant
little to the average citizen. But to those who have read
scientification, there was a grim meaning in those words.
They had read of such situations, and knew and could
fully realize the momentum of that pregnant warning.

In conclusion I can say that it is only to be
feared that scientifiction has come to Man too
late to fully save him from the ever-impending
attacks of Nature, which are now gathering .
on the horizon of his existence. But
even so, it stands out against the black
background of Fate as a flaming
torch, symbolizing that greatest of
human forces, whispered of in
all ages— Hope.

PRIZE WINNER

James E, Suiter,
751 Bergen Avenue,
Jersey City, N. J.
(See page 575)'

H

m

i

The Next Issue of the Quarterly Will Be on the Newsstands January 20th

435

^ Mod ern
Prometheus

r HE early alchemists devoted much of their energy to the transmutation of
metals. In experimenting in this direction, by the most empiric methods,
they did develop a lot of chemistry, but were deplorably lacking in theory.
Strange things are going on in the series of the elements, and it may be that chem-
ists are now on the verge of transmutation. Any approaches to it, curiously
enough, lie among the metals. Allotropism brings us pretty near to transmuta-
tion, for, to take a classic example, by subjecting the beautiful diamond to in-
tense heat it can be converted into precisely the same weight of unattractive coke.
The changing of one form of carbon into another, diamonds into coke, certainly
comes pretty close to the goal. It does not seem impossible, therefore, that chem-
ists may, within a few years, carry out the dream of the alchemist. But when that
dream is realized — what then? Mr. Wales, who was first introduced to AMAZING
STORIES as the prize winner in our first cover contest, has consistently maintained,
his original high standard of scientific fiction, and in this story, “A Modern
Prometheus,” brings us not only entertainment and science, but also instructive
information in diversified fields. It is an excellent complete science novel.

Prologue

H IGH on the Palisades, which guard the Hudson
River, stood a great house. Every detail of its
architecture, every feature of its environment,
gave evidence of wealth, combined with a keen sense of
beauty and artistic fitness, as admirable as it was rare,
in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Perhaps the
building or its extensive grounds might not have found
favor in the eyes of the idle rich of those times, hide-
bound as they were by millenniums of conventions and
prejudices, but this was not the twentieth century. It
was the end of the twenty-second; to be exact, the
early summer of 2189 A.D. Tastes change as the
years pass, and if the Eyrie, as it was called, suited
John Ballantyne, surely it would have been in the
worst of taste for a millionaire of the twentieth cen-
tury to criticise it, even had any such been there to do
so — which there was not !

The Eyrie was rambling, extensive, and one story in
height throughout, but that single story was far more
spacious than anything a New Yorker of two hundred
years previously had ever seen. The entire structure
consisted of groups and colonnades of vast pillars, each
joined to the adjacent ones by panels or walls, the whole
being decorated with such consummate artistry that it
conveyed an impression of delicacy and lightness, which
contrasted surprisingly with the size and massiveness
of the building.

An observer approaching the mansion would not
have been justified in supposing the material of which
it was constructed to be otherwise than what it ap-

peared to be — stone — and would have marveled at the
skill with which such an intractable material had been
carved into the similitude of innumerable natural and
artificial objects, each resplendent in its appropriate
colors. Flowering vines twined around the great pil-
lars; birds of many species ornamented the capitals
and pilasters, and the walls were brilliant with geo-
metrical designs, executed in every hue of the rainbow.

A closer examination by a twentieth century ob-
server would, however, have revealed the surprising fact
that if the building were of stone, it was some stone
hitherto unknown to the mason. The surface varied in
texture in accordance with the purpose for which it was
used, the pillars possessing the polish of glass and the
translucency of onyx, the vegetation being of a dull
smoothness, and the feathers of the birds velvety and
shimmering. Nowhere was to be found the coarse grit-
tiness usually associated with building stone.

Stranger still, the walls were unbroken by either
door or window. Having no visible means of entrance
or source of light, one would have supposed the entire
structure to be some immense mausoleum, some greater
and more glorious Taj Mahal, but for the presence of
several smaller buildings amongst the trees: garages
for automobiles and hangars for planes. Indeed, with
its apparent absence of light and air, the main building
would seem to be little better than a very ornate prison.

The gardens, which surrounded the mansion on three
sides, were in the full splendor of their summer loveli-
ness. Except for the winding pathways, it was hard
to realize that the hand of man had ever been laid
upon this riotous wilderness of bloom and verdure.

436

By

Cyril G. Wates

Author of “ The Visitation,”

“ The Face of Isis,” etc.

Illustrated by WESSO

In the light front the reflectors , the
shadowy Something materialized , , ,
fully fifty feet in length , j

437

438

AMAZING STORIES QUARTERLY

There was no attempt at segregating plants into beds
or borders. There were none of the hideous monstros-
ities which were so much admired in the nineteenth
century under the name of “lawns,” torture fields in
which the tender grass-plants, instead of being merci-
fully killed outright, as today when they are needed for
food, were repeatedly beheaded in close proximity to
the roots; a form of cruelty only to be explained by
complete ignorance of the obvious fact that plants are
living, feeling beings.

The sky was overcast and a soft rain was falling,
veiling the distant hills in tenuous mist, through which
could be seen the silvery shimmer of an approaching
plane. With incredible swiftness it drew near until it
was directly on a level with the Eyrie and then, after
hovering for a moment, dropped like a plummet to the
base of the cliffs. Just above where the plane had
landed, a small promontory was occupied by a protrud-
ing wing of the main building, semicircular in form.

The interior of this wing was furnished with severe
plainness. A large desk occupied the center of the
straight side of the room, and seated at the desk was
a man absorbed in study. He was in the prime of life,
certainly not a day over eighty years of age, and his
black hair was combed back and parted on both sides
in the modern fashion, revealing a forehead unmarked
by the passage of time, but at this moment contracted
into a frown as he turned the pages of the report he
was reading.

A soft light filtered through the walls and ceiling,
flooding the room with pearly luminescence. Outside,
the storm was passing away and the light in the room
grew stronger as the wind dispersed the mist, but John
Ballantyne remained buried in his papers until a sud-
den burst of sunshine poured over his desk like a
golden flood and caused him to raise his head.

With a sigh, he pushed his papers to one side and,
reaching behind him, pressed a button. Instantly the
walls seemed to melt away, until they were far more
transparent than the finest glass, upon which stood out
the fairylike tracery of the exterior decorations. The
sun was driving the rain before it down the valley and
dozens of pleasure planes began to rise in all directions
into the clear air.

J OHN BALLANTYNE placed a weight on his papers
and touched another button. With startling sud-
denness, the transparent panels which formed the walls
vanished into the interior of the pillars, leaving no trace
of their presence. The whole room was converted into
an open pavilion, through which the cool breezes blew
unchecked. Ballantyne drew his purple tunic over his
shoulders and walked across to where the floor ran out
to the little promontory, terminating flush with the
mighty cliffs of the Palisades. He stood for some min-
utes looking towards the west. Then he started back
with an exclamation as his ankle was seized by a sinewy
hand. Following the hand, appeared a curly brown
head, a laughing face, and a pair of muscular shoulders,
belonging to a young man who completed his perilous
ascent of the cliff by turning a handspring into the
middle of the room.

“Scared you that time, didn’t I, Dad?”

“How many times have I asked you not to fool
around on these cliffs, Raoul?” said his father, with
some show of anger, “and how often have I told you
not to call me by that prehistoric appellation?”

“About as often as I’ve asked you not to call me
Raoul, I guess!” replied the young man, good-
humoredly.

“That’s different,” replied his father. “Your sister
calls you that and we’ve all got into the habit, I sup-
pose. Personally I like it!”

“Yes, and personally, I like ‘Dad’,” laughed the boy,
and then, seeing a shadow on the older man’s face, he
continued impetuously: “Sorry, John, but I didn’t know
you objected so strongly. I guess I like ‘Dad’ just
because it’s old-fashioned. I’ll try to break myself
of it.”

“I don’t know where you get your craze for old-
fashioned things,” said his father, not altogether molli-
fied. “You can’t seem to get it through your head that
you’re living in modern times, not in the days of
George the Fifth and Coolidge, or whoever it v r as at
the time of the Revolution!”

“Those old fellows back in the twentieth century
were wise to a few things we don’t know, John,” said
the boy, seriously. “They were as far ahead of us in
science as we are ahead of them in commerce and art.”

“I don’t want to start an argument, Raoul,” said his
father. “Come and sit down. I’ve wished for some
time to have a serious talk with you and the present
will do as well as later.”

Seated at his desk, John Ballantyne sat for some
moments in silence, studying his only son with thought-
ful eyes, in which there was not a little pride and ad-
miration. Raoul was such a fine specimen of young
manhood as he stood there. He had thrown back his
crimson flexifer tunic, revealing the torso of a young
Apollo. Golden sandals and crimson breeches com-
pleted the costume of a typical young man of the time.
Physically he w T as a representative of the coming gen-
eration. What curious throwback was responsible for
his strange, old-fashioned tastes?

Some such thoughts passed across the mind of the
older man. He knew from bitter experience that his
son had inherited from him an inflexible will which,
in the past, he had attempted to bend to his own wishes
many times without success. He felt that now, for the
last time, he must present his arguments as persua-
sively as possible or forever give up the hopes which
had centered themselves in his son for so many years.
The bizarre notion that parents possessed some divine
right to mould their children’s lives into any pattern
which pleased them was first questioned in the nine-
teenth century. In the twentieth it was discarded as
a theory although often followed in practice, but in the
last two hundred years, known to us as the Age of
Social Enlightenment, it had been relegated to the
limbo of forgotten things, together with such prehis-
toric fantasies as Unemployment and Mortgages.

Thus, when John Ballantyne addressed his son, it
was as man to man. To have assumed an attitude of
paternal authority would have been to yield to the
same weakness for old-fashioned ideas which he had
deprecated in his son.

“You are fond of me, Raoul?” he queried at last.

“Why, of course !” replied the young man, in surprise.
“You know I think there’s no one like you, John.”

“Yes, I know that,” nodded his father. “But what I
can’t comprehend is that in spite of your proven affec-
tion for your sister and myself, you still insist in
frittering away your life in worthless pursuits.”

Raoul was about to reply, but his father restrained
him with uplifted hand.

“Let me have my say, Raoul. It’s for the last time.
I know what you were going to tell me, that ten or
twelve hours a day in the laboratory is hardly fritter-
ing away time. In that I must differ from you. We
read of people in past centuries who spent their time
knitting in spite of the fact that such work could be
done far better and more cheaply by machinery. As a
casual amusement, persons of defective mentality might
be excused for indulging in it, but as a life work, I think
you will agree 'with me that knitting was, as I have
said, frittering away one’s life.”

A MODERN PROMETHEUS

439

“Of course, but what has knitting to do with me,
John?”

“Just this, Raoul, that like the chemistry and elec-
tricity of which you are so fond, it was a useless waste
of time; well enough as a hobby but of no possible
benefit to the world. Two hundred years ago or more
men believed that there was no limit to the advancement
of science, not realizing that, like explorers on an
island, they had reached the ultimate shores of dis-
covery. We know better today. We know that the
limits of useful progress along scientific lines were
reached centuries ago and that it is only to the field
of social advancement that there are no boundaries.”

“I will never believe that, John!” exclaimed Raoul,
his face flushing. “Just because the study of science
was practically abandoned in the face of the crying
need for Social Advancement, is no proof that all the
great seentific discoveries have been made. The world
has always been like that. Progress has never been
steady and continuous, but by leaps and bounds, with
intervals of stagnation, like the flow of a mountain
stream. It was only natural that after the Electrical
Age, which culminated in the perfecting of Aviation
and Television, the pendulum should swing in the
other direction for a time and men should turn their
thoughts inward. Art, psychology, the social sciences
have been the chief study of mankind for two hun-
dred years, but I will never admit that the fields of
chemistry and electricity have been exhausted.”

“This is barren discussion, Raoul,” interposed his
father, impatiently, “and will get us nowhere. If you
feel the necessity of some hobby as an intellectual
stimulus, I should be the last to object. The source
of my unhappiness — for I will admit I am unhappy —
lies in the fact that you, who have boundless oppor-
tunities for the advancement of your fellow men, re-
fuse to accept your responsibilities. As my son, you
fall heir to the greatest iron industries in the world
today. The happiness of a billion human beings will
be in your hands, their homes, their clothing, their
transportation, even to some extent their food, comes
from the Ballantyne iron mines. Yet you, with a
century of useful life before you, persist in following
that will-o’-the-wisp, Science!”

“I’m sorry, John. I wish, for your sake, that I
could do as you ask, but I should be false to my con-
victions if I dropped my scientific investigations now.
What old Polonius said nearly a thousand years ago
is just as applicable today. ‘To thine own self be true,
and it shall follow, as the night the day, thou canst
not then be false to any man.’ I believe that science
holds greater gifts to mankind than any she has re-
vealed in past ages and I must obey my call.”

“You must be off your head!” cried his father,
angrily. “Insane — in a time when insanity is as obso-
lete as cancer and woolen clothes and — and science.
Even in your sports you are an eccentric! Mountain
climbing! I’ll admit there are a few wild young men
and women who think it a sign of extraordinary phys-
ical development to indulge in it, but when you carry
it to the extreme of self-destruction, you are simply a
suicidal maniac! Look at your face! In these times,
when beauty of feature and perfection of physique are
a universal ideal, you are a disgrace to our family. Do
you wonder that your sister hesitates to bring her
friends to the Eyrie when you are here!”

Raoul flushed deeply, the scars on his face standing
- out white against the crimson. He drew his tunic over
h*r shoulders as though to hide the blush of anger which
spread over his shoulders and chest.

“I’m sorry you feel that w T ay, John,” he said, quietly.
“I’ll not trouble you with my presence any longer. Per-
haps some day I shall be able to convince you that I

am right, and when that time comes, I’ll come back.
Goodbye, Dad,” and he walked across the room and
disappeared over the edge of the cliff.

For some time John Ballantyne sat motionless at his
desk. His anger gradually ebbed, leaving nothing but
the desire to retain his son at any price. After all,
there was room for all kinds of people in the world and
perhaps, if he removed his objections and gave Raoul a
free hand to follow his bent, he would tire of his insane
pursuit of science and take his rightful place as head
of the great International Ferrous Products Organiza-
tion.

The hum of a motor broke the silence and Raoul’s
plane leaped up past the Eyrie on its vertical ascent to
the upper air lanes used by west-bound traffic. John
Ballantyne reached across the desk and switched on the
visophone. After a brief interval the figure of his
son appeared on the screen in stereoscopic relief, his
crimson tunic blown back by the wind coming through
the open front of the plane. Raoul’s brown eyes were
turned towards his as the chime of the visophone on
the dashboard of the plane drew his attention.

“Come back, my son !” exclaimed the father, his hand
outstretched, as if he could grasp that of the image.
Raoul's scarred face changed, his lips parting in a wist-
ful smile, but he spoke no word. Then he shook his
head slowly, regretfully. His hand reached out to the
control-switch, and a moment later John Ballantyne was
staring at the dark screen of the instrument. Jump-
ing from his chair, he hurried to the western opening.
The sun was touching the horizon, a disc of fiery splen-
dor. A rapidly diminishing speck, silhouetted against
that blinding glory, growing ever smaller to invisibility,
was John Ballantyne’s last glimpse of his son.

CHAPTER I

The Workshop in the Mountains

G EOFFREY YON ELMAR sighed with weari-
ness as he straightened up from the bench
over which he had been leaning for more
than six hours. There is a limit to the strain
which even the finest organization and the
steadiest nerves can endure, and the long period of un-
remitting attention which w r as necessary for the deli-
cate experiment in w'hich he had been engaged, had
strained both to the breaking point. Six hours of mi-
croscopic manipulation and the result — nil ! The whole
thing must be done all over again.

The room in which Von Elmar had been working was
fitted out with elaborate equipment for carrying on sci-
entific research work, but it would have been hard to
say for what particular branch of science the equip-
ment was designed. The laboratory was very large.
At one end were benches and shelves containing stills,
pipettes, test tubes, electric heaters, sand baths and all
the thousand utensils necessary for the pursuit of
chemistry. Adjacent to this were other benches bear-
ing microscopes, polariscopes, tiny cutting instruments
of all kinds— in fact everything that w 7 ould be needed
to carry on research work in organic chemistry, bac-
teriology and even surgery. It was here that Geoffrey
Yon Elmar had been working.

Along the wall was a row of cabinets containing in-
numerable geological specimens, but apart from this,
the whole of the remaining space was filled with every
conceivable kind of electric apparatus. It would be im-
possible to describe in detail, or even to catalogue, the
enormous collection of devices, ranging from exploring
coils and electron tubes, to gigantic transformers and
ferrovertei's.

440

AMAZING STORIES QUARTERLY

The room was warm and Von Elmar had been work-
ing without his tunic for comfort and freedom of mo-
tion. As he stretched his stiff muscles and yawned
cavernously, he stood revealed as a tremendously power-
ful man with a development of chest and shoulders
quite exceptional in an age that was noted for beauty
and symmetry rather than for great strength. His
face, which showed him to be in early manhood, would
have been altogether likeable in its frankness and good
nature but for the disfigurement of a jagged white
line which traversed one cheek from, the ear to the
corner of the mouth ; evidently the scar of some terrible
injury.

Geoffrey picked up his tunic of somber brown and
flung it over his shouders. Striding across the room to
the only vacant wall, he pressed a switch. The panels
slid apart noiselessly, revealing a scene of such wild
magnificence that, familiar as it was to him, he could
not suppress a slight drawing in of the breath.

He stepped out upon a narrow balcony with an iron
railing and stood looking down into an airy gulf, above
which he seemed to hang poised, like an eagle in full
flight. A great valley, slashed through the heart of a
mighty mountain range, the knife that had carved it
still lying two thousand feet below, a glittering river
of ice. Five miles away the peaks clustered together
as though for companionship, lifting their hoary heads
into the cloudless sky, their rugged gray shoulders
forming a gigantic amphitheater, filled with a spotless
field of eternal snow, from which blue icefalls cascaded
downwards over crevasse and serac to feed the insa-
tiable glacier.

The building of which the laboratory formed a part
was constructed upon the face of a sheer cliff, which
constituted one of the retaining walls of the glacier.
The rear of the structure rested upon a natural ledge,
but the greater part overhung the void, sustained by-
great steel girders whose lower ends fitted into diagonal
notches cut in the rock a hundred feet below. There
seemed no possible means of access to this aerial
workshop except by plane, although a closer inspection
would have revealed the presence of an elevator cage
hanging by cables below the balcony.

The suave curves of the snowfields were beginning
to flush with the rosy hues of sunset. Geoffrey turned
his eyes towards the southeast. Presently his vigilance
was rewarded by the sight of a small plane which came
towards him at a great height. It cleared the summits
of the opposite range, came swooping across the valley,
hovered a moment on its sustaining helices and then
dropped gracefully into the cradle provided for it at
one end of the building.

A young man stepped out of the pilot’s seat and
waved to Von Elmar.

“Come and give me a hand with this stuff, Geoff!”
he called as he started to unload sundry boxes from the
rear compartment of the plane.

The newcomer resembled Geoffrey in stature and
complexion but there the resemblance ceased. He was
dark while Geoffrey was fair. He was graceful and
agile, while Geoffrey was powerful and heavy. Instead
of Geoffrey’s knotted muscles, he possessed the smooth
skin of the athlete and his regular features were with-
out a blemish. In the old days, Ralph Morton and his
friend Geoffrey Von Elmar might have posed for
statues of Greek gods: Hermes and Vulcan.

As Geoff approached the plane, another man stepped
out, a little man whose yellow skin and slant eyes
bespoke Oriental birth.

This is Dr. Ota Umetaro,* Geoff. I met him in
Denver and brought him along to help with the cell-
growth experiments.”

*Pr. O-tah OO-may-tah-ro. Ang. Plum Blossom.

Umetaro’s handshake was accompanied by the slight
bow and the restrained smile which in the Japanese
gentleman combined friendliness, dignity and reticence.

“Your wish, Sir! I look forward with pleasure to
working with scientists of such distinction,” he said.

“Scarcely ‘distinction,’ Dr. Umetaro,” said Ralph
Morton, smiling, “since we are obliged to keep our small
accomplishments to ourselves. If what we are trying
to do became public, we should be more notorious than
distinguished.”

“Nevertheless, I crave your honored permission to
adhere to my original word. The great world would
indeed condemn your efforts in no uncertain terms, but
there are a few here and there who secretly rebel
against the dogma that our scientific knowledge is com-
plete ; that nothing must be either added to it or taken
from it. To these rebels, scattered and yet united,
among whom I am proud to number myself, you two
gentlemen are, as I have said, distinguished.”

Von Elmar was delighted with the courtly and yet
frank manner of their new associate. Dr. Umetaro
was a typical citizen of the Japanese Division, where,
in spite of the almost universal intermarriage which
had spread over the world in the last century, the old
blood of the Samurai had been kept practically pure.
He was built for speed and lightness, like a whippet,
and his costume, although similar to that which was
worn throughout the w-orld, displayed the elaborate em-
broidery and brilliant colors beloved by all Orientals.

T HE three men finished unloading the boxes of sup-
plies, which Ralph had brought from Denver, and
then moved along the balcony towards the laboratory.
The doctor was enthusiastic over the unique location
of this aerial workshop and the magnificence of the
surrounding scenery. It was his first visit to the
Canadian Rockies, and for once his admiration broke
the bounds of his habitual reserve.

“To devote your lives to the advancement of science,
that is courage !” he exclaimed. “But to choose a para-
dise like this for your work — ah! but that is genius!
When every experiment fails; when every line of rea-
soning leads to a blank wall of discouragement; to be
able to step out upon this balcony and draw new in-
spiration from the eternal peaks — what happiness!
Gentlemen, you are to be congratulated !”

They entered the great laboratory and again the
Japanese savant gave voice to unstinted praise for the
completeness and ingenuity of the equipment. Ralph
and Geoffrey took him on a tour of inspection, lingering
here and there over some instrument or machine which
displayed some novel feature which was the result of
their investigations.

In the organic section, Dr. Umetaro again burst forth
into delighted exclamations.

“Wonderful! Splendid! You have thought of and
provided for every detail. Necleatromes, Chromosome-
Separators — Ah! but what is this?” he asked, stop-
ping in front of an elaborate machine which combined
a pair of eyepieces, like a binocular microscope, with a
complicated arrangement of coils, condensers and
vacuum tubes.

“A little idea of Geoff’s, Doctor,” said Ralph. “We
call it the Atomoscope. Tell him about it, Geoff.”

“I’m afraid it hasn’t lived up to its name so far, Dr.
Umetaro. As you can guess, it’s a kind of ultra-
microscope for studying atomic structure. Instead of
light, we use an extremely short-wave oscillatory cur-
rent. The waves are reflected from the object be" 1 #
examined and then amplified, after passing througn a
scanning disc. The amplified current is then brought
to this Glaucon Tube, the light from which passes
through another synchronized scanning disc to the

A MODERN PROMETHEUS

441

eyepiece. It isn’t perfect yet by any means. We
haven’t been able to see atoms, but we’ve got a mag-
nification of several million diameters; plenty to study
the internal structure of chromosomes, which was our
real object.”

The Japanese doctor was watching Geoffrey Von
Elmar , with kindly eyes as he talked, as much inter-
ested in the speaker as in his invention. The unas-
suming way in which the young expert divided the
credit for his work with his companion and the light
which diffused his ugly, scarred face were enough to
convince the doctor that here was something more
than a scientist : a loyal friend.

After supper, which was prepared by Geoffrey and
served on the balcony, the two young men showed their
new associate over the rest of the building — the store-
rooms filled with every conceivable kind of material for
scientific research; the sleeping quarters on the roof;
the transformer room where the power waves from the
great station on the Athabasca River was picked up
and converted to the voltage required for lighting the
building and operating the machinery; and the ele-
vator by which they could descend to the surface of
the glacier for ski-ing and other exercise which was a
part of the daily routine.

“Not that Ralph makes much use of the elevator,”
remarked Geoff. “He prefers his private stairway,”
and he pointed downwards to a series of natural
cracks and ledges in the face of the sheer limestone
cliff ; a perilous ladder by which an active and fearless
climber might make his way up or down.

Later, when they were seated on the balcony, with
their pipes, watching a full moon turning the solemn
peaks into a glistening fairy castle, Ralph asked the
Doctor a question which had been in his mind ever
since the Japanese had approached him in the ro-
tunda of the Hotel Colorado, in Denver.

“How did you find out that Von Elmar and I were
engaged in scientific work out here, Dr. Umetaro?” he
asked. “We thought we had been successful in con-
cealing our plans from everyone. We have posed as
wealthy young mountain climbers who have a flair for
solitude. Yet, from hints you have dropped at vari-
ous times today, it would seem that our object in iso-
lating ourselves in the mountains is public property.
And then, who are these ‘rebels’ of whom you speak?
Surely no political organization is planning a revolu-
tion such as we read about in old books?”

The Doctor puffed at his pipe thoughtfully.

“Have you young gentlemen specialized in history,
by any chance?” he asked presently.

“I can tell you the date of the International Amal-
gamation,” said Ralph, laughing. “That’s my limit.”

“Read a book called ‘Hereward the Wake’ a long time
ago,” said Geoff. “All about a fellow named Harold.
One of the early presidents, I think. Had his eye
punched out.”

“Then it is certainly time that your education along
those lines was improved. In order to answer the ques-
tions you have asked, Mr. Morton, I must tell you some-
thing of what has been taking place in the world dur-
ing the last three hundred years. Have you the pa-
tience to listen to a lecture on ancient history ? I think
I can promise to make it interesting.”

CHAPTER II
The World in 1950

cc j ip JET-

, | ^HREE hundred years ago,” said Dr. Umetaro,
1 “the reading public were greatly interested in
books dealing with the future development of the
world. To meet this demand, a tremendous amount of

literature was produced, some commonplace, some im-
aginative, much of it far-fetched and sensational in
the extreme. But no matter how unreal and impossible
a book might be, if it dealt with the ‘days to come,’
the author was sure of a favorable reception.

“Amid this mass of reading matter, there were two
books which enjoyed a popularity probably in excess
of any other. At least, one would judge that this was
the case from the immense number of copies which
were sold. The first of these was written about 1890
by Edward Bellamy, whose fame as an author rests
almost entirely upon this one book. It was entitled
‘Looking Backward’ and it predicts the future of the
world in the year 2000. The second book to which I
refer appeared about thirty years later. It was called
‘When the Sleeper Wakes’ and was written by H. G.
Wells, a prolific author of novels and imaginative ro-
mances in the English Division.

“These two books resemble each other in the use of
a similar device for producing an effect of realism in
the mind of the reader, namely, a sleeper who awakes
in a new world after a prolonged period of unconscious-
ness and describes what he sees, contrasting it with
the conditions he left behind when he fell asleep.”

“Excuse me, Doctor,” interrupted Geoffrey. “You
say this Bellamy wrote his book about 1890 and that
he described conditions in 2000? That’s a hundred
and ten years. I don’t quite understand why he would
need to introduce a ‘sleeper’ in his book. A young
man — say twenty — — ”

“You’re forgetting we’ve doubled the average life
span since then, Geoff,” said Ralph. “Seventy was old
age in the nineteenth century, wasn’t it, Doctor?”

“Of course, I should have known that!” ejaculated
Geoff. “Go on, Dr. Umetaro. I won’t interrupt again.”

“Please do not hesitate to do so,” said the Japanese,
smiling. “I am very desirous that you should under-
stand the meaning of conditions as we find them today,
because I foresee that you gentlemen are to play a
prominent part in world events in the near future.”

“Why, Doctor! What makes you say that?” ex-
claimed Ralph.

“The answer lies hid in your own hearts,” answered
the Japanese, with a little upward gesture. “Well, to
continue. I have spoken of these two pseudo-prophetic
books with their sleepers. It is safe to say that thou-
sands of people in those far-off times really thought
such books foretold the progress of the world with a
fair degree of accuracy, and yet, if Bellamy and Wells
could have taken the place of their principal characters
and awakened in the year 2000, I am certain they would
have received the shock of their lives, not because of the
tremendous changes with which they would find them-
selves surrounded, but rather because a casual inspec-
tion or even a careful examination would fail to show
that the world today is any different from what it
was in 1900. Not that it is the same — we know how
deep-rooted the changes are — but simply that the trans-
formation does not appear on the surface.

“Bellamy, the earlier writer, would be most impressed
with the visible signs of progress, but it would be a sad
shock to his powers of prophecy to find that the ma-
terial and scientific advance which he predicted for the
year 2000 had been reached and far surpassed, before
a third of that time had elapsed. Wells, however, would
most certainly be sadly disappointed to find people still
doing their traveling in trains, airplanes and motor
cars, little if any difference from those to which he was
accustomed during his lifetime. But I’m getting ahead
of my story.

“What I have said will perhaps convey the correct
impression that people in those times were convinced
that they were on the verge of a great transformation ;

442

AMAZING STORIES QUARTERLY

that Utopia was about to arrive, all complete to the
smallest detail and done up in a neat package with a
ribbon around it, without any special effort on their
part. Early in the twentieth century occurred one of
those ghastly upheavals which form so large a part of
the history of the old world. It was known as ‘The
War to End Wars’ and although millions of men, yes,
and women too, gave their lives for a cause which, to
say the best, was less unjust than most, the survivors
soon found that so far from ending wars, this great
shambles had served only to whet the appetite of the
war-makers.

“Although for many years after, no great war took
place, the facts go to show that the governments of
the world, of which there was an infinite variety, were
simply waiting for a new generation to arise to supply
what was described with gruesome humor as ‘cannon
fodder.’ While the ranks of the people were pacified
with great peace demonstrations and disarmament
treaties, the energies of most governments were being
concentrated on devising new and more horrible meth-
ods of warfare.”

T was Ralph who interrupted this time.

“But I don’t understand, Doctor,” he said, wrin-
kling his brows. “You speak of ‘the ranks of the people’
who seemed to desire peace, and ‘the governments’
which were set on war. Surely most of the countries
in those days were more or less democratic. That
would mean that there was no essential difference be-
tween the ‘governments’ and the ‘people.’ ”

“You are right, Sir. Morton,” said the Japanese.
“Just as there is no essential difference between a man
breathing mountain air and a man breathing pure
oxygen, but we know that in the latter case, the most
phlegmatic man becomes a veritable demon of energy.
As soon as a man was removed from the ‘ranks of the
people’ and became a member of the government, he
found himself enclosed in an atmosphere of distrust
and pugnacity. Governments rarely, if ever, deliberately
planned war. It was an essential part of an artificial
system. It was one of the rules of the game that
the only way of atoning for a so-called slur on national
honor, was by slaughtering as many of your fellow-men
as possible. It would have been cowardly murder to
stab your neighbor in the back because he claimed
that your fence was a foot on his property, but it was
an act of the highest courage to shoot a thousand
fellow-men from ambush, because their government
claimed that the international boundary line was in the
wrong place. And the curious thing is that no one
seemed to realize the fallacy of this line of reasoning!”

“What a horrible business it must have been!” ex-
claimed Geoffrey. “How could men go out for the de-
liberate purpose of killing each other — practically in
cold blood, too?”

“It’s not the actual killing that turns my stomach,”
said his friend. “After all, a man can die only once.
It’s the state of mind which made such killing and
maiming right or even possible that seems so ghastly!”

Dr. Umetaro nodded.

“You’re right, Mr. Morton. You have laid your finger
on the root of the matter. People in those days didn’t
really believe that war did any good. War was a habit
with them; a habit whose antiquity made it the more
difficult to shake off. As they would have expressed
it, Mankind had a war ‘complex’. But let us be just.
War has two good marks to its credit. It produced
a type of self-sacrifice and courage unexcelled and per-
haps unequalled today, and it contributed enormously
to the advancement of science.”

“Oh! come, Doctor!” exclaimed Ralph. “That’s going
a bit far. I can well believe your first statement, but

that war, the very essence of destruction, could advance
science, the epitome of progress, is pretty hard to
swallow!”

“Nevertheless, it is the naked truth. You must re-
member that the war-makers of the Nations were
keenly alert to acquire any new device which would
help either directly or indirectly in butchering their
enemies. With unlimited funds at their command, these
Governments were able to offer powerful incentives to
inventors and scientists. As a single example, you
know that the problem of flight was solved by the
famous Wright brothers early in the twentieth century,
but perhaps you are not aware that little progress was
made in aviation until the ‘War to End Wars’ broke
out. More actual advance was made in the art and
science of flight during the four years of that contest,
than in the quarter-centuries preceding it.

“As I have said, this great war was followed by a
period of what in those times passed for peace, a
period of nearly fifty years unmarked by any but
minor disturbances, hardly worthy of the name of wars.
This half-century brought forth three great discoveries
— television, the wireless transmission of power, and,
last and greatest of all, the transmutation of iron.
You have only to read the books of the period to realize
the tremendous influence which these three inventions
had in transforming the face of the earth. The per-
fecting of television with all its ramifications, was
the last link in the chain which was to bind the world
into one great union of friendly communities. The
wireless transmission of power solved the last diffi-
culty in the way of universal conquest of the air. As
to the transmutation of iron, that epoch-making dis-
covery was so totally unexpected and so immediate in
its effects that we, today, can hardly conceive the
magnitude of the changes that it wrought.

“Early in the year 1952, a student in the University
of Chicago was engaged in preparing his graduation
thesis. He had chosen for his subject ‘Allotropism in
Carbon and Sulphur,’ It had long been known that
these two elements appeared in several utterly dis-
similar forms. Nothing can be more unlike than the
diamond, graphite, and charcoal, yet all three are pure
carbon. Sulphur also appears in two or more forms.
Little or nothing was known to account for these
strange phenomena and scientists contented them-
selves with vague statements about molecular arrange-
ments, little suspecting that in allotropism lay hidden
a power which was to transform the face of the earth.

“This young student’s name was Walter Ballantyne.
He was the ancestor of John Ballantyne, who controls
the iron industries of the world today. One day while
working in the laboratory with a sample of charcoal,
he happened to place the porcelain dish containing it
near the terminals of a very powerful transformer
connected with the wireless power aerial. When he
returned from an adjacent room, where he had gone
to fetch a microscope, he found in place of the pinch
of black powder he had left, a hard, semi-transparent
lump. In a word, the charcoal had been converted into
diamond by the inductive action of the current.

“Ballantyne’s excitement can be imagined. He re-
peated the experiment more than once and did not rest
until he had established the exact conditions under
which the transformation took place. In those days
the diamond was extremely valuable and most young
men having by accident tapped a mine of inexhaustible
wealth, would have dropped science then and there, to
take up a life of idleness and luxury. Not so Walter
Ballantyne. Feeling that he was on the verge o£-^<»ie
basic discovery, he flung himself into his work with
renewed energy. Success followed success. Soon he was
able to produce all the allotropic forms of carbon and

A MODERN PROMETHEUS 443

sulphur at will, besides several hitherto unknown, such
as fibrilite, a form of carbon capable of being drawn
into threads as fine as silk and possessing over one
hundred times the tensile strength of steel wire.

“It was the discovery of fibrilite that made Ballan-
tyne turn his attention to other elements in the hope
of producing new forms of allotropism. With the ex-
ception of a few' minor and valueless changes in cobalt
and nickel he got no results until he tried iron. If he
had been astonished at the transformation of charcoal
into diamond, what must have been his feelings when
he found iron filings converted info a colorless liquid
and again into a fabric as soft as velvet and crimson
in hue.

“Experiment after experiment was successful beyond
his wildest dreams. Whether it was the unique mag-
netic properties of iron which rendered it peculiarly
susceptible to change we know no more today than
Walter Ballantyne did tw 7 o hundred years ago, but the
fact remained that this element seemed as flexible as
clay to the magic process of allotropism. One is re-
minded of the old chemists who took a pot of tar and
produced from it all the infinite hues of the rainbow
in aniline dyes.

“Ballantyne built a special group of transformers,
the parent of the gigantic ferroverters of today, and
began to experiment in earnest. He found that by
suitable combinations of power he was able to repro-
duce in iron all the qualities which had heretofore
been regarded as strictly inherent in other substances.
Hardness, malleability, tensile strength, weight, color,
transparency, even taste and odor, could be imparted
to iron separately or in any combination, in the in-
finite diversity of its allotropic forms. In short, there
was no substance known to mankind which could not
be replaced to advantage by some transmuted form
of this master element, iron.

“When he had definitely determined the broad basic
principle governing the various transformations, then,
and not until then, Walter Ballantyne turned his at-
tention to the practical side of his great discovery.
He had kept his investigations entirely secret, and when
they W'ere concluded he seems to have dropped them
completely and devoted much thought to the best way
of giving the results to the world. He did nothing in
haste, but when he finally acted, he displayed the keen
business acumen which has been the outstanding char-
acteristic of the family ever since.

“/"\NE day in early summer, a dark-haired young
man of quiet, studious demeanor presented him-
self at the New York office of the Pan-American Steel
and Iron Company and asked for the president. He
was, of course, refused admittance — great financiers
in those days had a quite extraordinary idea of their
own importance and cherished a notion that they added
to their dignity by making themselves inaccessible. The
quiet young man was not at all discouraged. He took
out his notebook and scribbled a brief message which
he handed to the secretary with the request that it be
carried to the great man.

“That scribbled note reposes in a glass case in the
Museum at Chicago — one of the most prized treasures
of the world. It read as follows:

“ ‘I can double your net income in twelve

months. And I don’t mean maybe!

Walter Ballantyne.’

“Perhaps I should explain that the second phrase in
this note was a favorite expression of those times
conveying definite assurance of some doubtful state-
ment.

“Ballantyne’s eccentric message gained him admis-
sion to the presence and his quiet air of self-command

gained him a hearing. It is a wonder that his proposal
did not gain him a violent ejection!

“Briefly summarized, his ultimatum was this. He
had made a discovery which he believed would greatly
increase the demand for iron. He would place this
discovery at the exclusive disposal of the Pan-American
Company for five years, at the end of which time, it
was to become the property of the world. If, as the
result of his discovery, the net income of the com-
pany was quadrupled in two years or less, he was to
receive a half interest in the company!

“Can you picture it? I like to think of that studious
young man with his quiet manner and his unbounded
self-assurance demanding, at one bound, to be made
the richest man in the world! And I like to imagine
the emotions of those hard-headed business men, con-
tempt merging into amusement, amusement into doubt,
hesitation, anger and dismay, until at last they yielded
and signed their names to the cast-iron contract which
Ballantyne had prepared, with a touch of characteristic
satire, on a sheet of white ferrotiss, the allotropic
iron equivalent of paper.

"That Ballantyne more than fulfilled his part of the
agreement is common knowledge. In six months gi-
gantic ferroverters were turning out hundreds of
allotropic forms of iron in tremendous quantities.
There was hardly any substance in commerce which
could not be replaced more cheaply by some form of
iron. Newspapers and magazines could be printed of
ferrotiss at a fraction the cost of paper. Ferrolith
took the place of wood and stone for buildings and
had the advantage that it could be made opaque or
transparent, a conductor or a non-conductor of heat at
will. Flexifer was greatly preferable to cotton, silk
or wool which it resembled, and rapidly replaced these
materials for clothing and draperies. It was equally
beautiful, much more durable, warmer or cooler as
desired and had the added advantage that it could be
sterilized at any time by simply heating it red hot
without damaging it in the slightest.

“It might be supposed that the sudden replacement
of so many of the natural products by cheaper and
better forms of allotropic iron would have resulted in a
disruption of the national organization amounting to
anarchy, but such was not the case. As fast as men
were thrown out of employment in other trades, they
were absorbed by the ever-growing iron industry and
its offshoots. But there was one thing Ballantyne had
overlooked in his famous contract. If he imagined
that the other nations were going to sit dormant for
five years while the United States captured the com-
merce of the world, he was vastly mistaken. In the
winter of 1954 a Brazilian workman stole the carefully
guarded secret of the Ferroverter and sold it to his
government.

“This was the opportunity for which the military
faction had been waiting. On December 25th, the
United States declared war on Brazil.”

CHAPTER III

The World in 2200 A. D.

HE Japanese professor stood up and stretched
his slim, wiry body.

“I am sure that you gentlemen must be very
weary, listening with such commendable patience to a
dissertation so long drawn out.”

Both young men protested vigorously.

“Don’t stop now, Doctor!” begged Ralph. “It’s early
yet, and surely you don’t intend to leave us in mid-air
with our curiosity unsatisfied.”

Geoffrey added his persuasions.

444

AMAZING STORIES QUARTERLY

“Of course, I know a little of what you have been
telling us, but only a very little. I always hated to take
the time from my science to devote to history. What
you have said serves to link up a lot of disconnected
ideas. Please go on, won’t you?”

“Upon your heads be it!” acquiesced the Japanese
doctor, with his fleeting smile, as he settled back in
his chair. “Where was I — Oh! Yes. The declaration
of war on Brazil.

“That declaration came as a thunderbolt to the
great mass of the population. Interest in politics
had waned more and more until, at the time of which
I speak, elections were hardly more than a formality.
There were sharply defined cliques, not only in the
United States but in all other civilized countries, as
well, which made a business of conducting the govern-
ments. These cliques, as I have told you, thought
in terms of war, but the average man and woman had
grown so thoroughly accustomed to peace that it was
looked upon as a permanent condition. In fact, there
is every evidence that the large majority believed the
declaration of war to be a pre-arranged diplomatic
pretense to arouse interest in some military display,
such as a sham air battle.

“They were soon to be disillusioned. Less than
twenty-four hours after war was declared, Chili, Ar-
gentine, and South Africa had joined forces with
Brazil, while Canada with its huge population, and
England, still head of the British Empire, though with
a population of less than twenty million, had offered
to support the United States.

“The war would, of course, be fought largely in
the air. There were no large standing armies in any
of the belligerent countries — the experience of the last
war had shown that a nation’s strength lay in its vol-
unteers — but practically everyone could handle a plane
even in those days. The Government began to discuss
finances and in the meantime sent out a stirring call
for a million volunteer pilots and observers to handle
bombing planes.”

Dr. Umetaro paused for several seconds and then
went on abruptly.

“I despair of being able to convey to you the reasons
which were responsible for the astounding outcome
of that call to arms. I can only repeat that there had
been nearly forty years of peace and that people had
lost all interest in professional politics. What curious
transformation had developed in the mass conscious-
ness during those decades of peace, it is hard to say.
I can only tell you the facts.

“One week after the call for volunteers in the United
States, with a population of two hundred million, only
six men and two women had come forward! Of these,
five were found to be mentally defective !”

“I’m surprised that there were that many,” said
Ralph, shrugging his shoulders.

“That is how I should expect the situation to strike
you, but remember that in those days, people looked at
matters differently. In the ‘War to End Wars’ men
and women volunteered by hundreds of thousands. It
was regarded as the only possible thing to do in order
to retain one’s self-respect. At the declaration of war
against Germany, England and France lvere swept by
a wave of passionate patriotism.

“But in 1954 when the United States called for vol-
unteers for a war against Brazil, the country was
swept by a gust of amazement, followed by a cyclone of
laughter. They looked upon the florid, patriotic posters,
which were televised to all parts of the country, as
a huge practical joke, Not that the citizens were not
patriotic. They were, very much so, but how would
you two gentlemen regard a politely worded invitation
to join a select party for the purpose of jumping over

this balcony to the glacier ? That was the attitude
the people took towards the war against Brazil!

“The Government was frantic. Every possible method
was used in an effort to arouse the populace to a proper
sense of their duty as soldiers, but it simply would
not do, and at last the Government resigned in a body,
swept out of existence by a gale of merriment.

“In the meantime, the other belligerents were passing
through similar experiences, modified by circumstances
and racial characteristics. In Ottawa, the Canadians
resorted to tar and feathers to express their feelings
towards the members of the cabinet. The Brazilians,
who are a hot-headed race, blew up the President’s
house, fortunately at a time when His Excellency was
at a conference. The servants having been warned,
no harm was done. The English, running true to form,
courteously ignored a war to which they had not been
introduced, and simply froze out the Parliament which
bad attempted to perform the introduction.

“It would take far too long for me to trace the re-
sults of that ridiculous declaration of war in all the
countries involved, neither would it serve any good pur-
pose. It suffices to say that many countries, including
the United States, were temporarily without govern-
ments, while others, Tike England, retained the form
of government simply because the people ignored the
statesmen. For a little while it appeared as though
the whole world was on the verge of anarchy.

“It was then that Walter Ballantyne showed his true
greatness. One evening, without taking anyone into
his confidence, he stepped into his private plane and at
noon the following day he entered the palatial resi-
dence of Senor Jose Pascano, managing director of the
great Brazilian Corporation, whose employee had stolen
the secret of transmuted iron. What took place at
that conference we do not know, but we do know that
two days later Ballantyne and Pascano presented their
cards at Buckingham Palace and were immediately ad-
mitted to the royal presence of King George the Sixth.
This ruler, who had a full share of the enlightenment
and sound common sense which had marked his uncle,
Albert I, and his grandfather, George V, was more
than willing to listen to the suggestions advanced by
the American Scientist and heartily supported by the
Brazilian financier.

“Just a week later — the exact date was, as you are
aware, Mr. Morton, February 14th — a proclamation
was broadcast and televised to all parts of the world
from the Island of Santa Lucia, stating that a Federa-
tion of the World had been established with head-
quarters at that point under the temporary supervision
of Walter Ballantyne, George Windsor and Jose Pascano,
who were ready and willing to accept applications for
membership in the said Federation. An open invitation
was extended to anyone who so desired to come to Santa
Lucia and help the intrepid three in their self-assumed
task of creating a new heaven and a new earth.

“There were no suggestions of elected delegates or
Ministers-Plenipotentiary. There was no restriction as
to who might or might not join this self-constituted
Board of Governors, save only that no person who had
held any sort of office in the defunct governments
might apply. There was not even any idea that nations
should take a vote on the subject.

“''T'HE attitude of the three was simple in the ex-
treme. They said, in effect, ‘We’ve started a
government. We’re going to do our level best to make
it a good government. If you like it, come and help
us make it a still better government. If you don’t like
it, tell us why, and we’ll try to change it to suit you.
Only it must be the same government for everyone.’

“Mind you, gentlemen, the idea was not original with

A MODERN PROMETHEUS

445

Ballantyne. Wells, the writer of whom I spoke, had
suggested the plan fifty years earlier, but these three
were the first to put it into effect. You might suppose
Santa Lucia would be flooded with cranks of all sorts,
boiling with enthusiasm at the prospect of being able
to start their own pet hobby horses down the track,
but such was not the case. The people of the world
were willing enough to accept any government which
would get them out of the mess in which the old poli-
ticians had involved them, but they were quite willing
to sit back and see what the new World Federation
had to offer. In the end, the three were forced to
invite individuals to join the Board of Control, as they
called themselves. They tried to get men of all nationali-
ties, because they wanted to understand the various
racial viewpoints. Aside from this, as Ballantyne
pointed out, the sole qualifications were a keen sense
of logic and an unbiased mind.

“Really, my friends, you would be surprised to find
how utterly biased and unreasonable the average man
or woman of the twentieth century was! People were
willing to believe anything, no matter how ridiculous.
The attitude of ninety-nine per cent of the population
in those days towards anything they did not under-
stand may be summed up in the popular phrase, ‘There
may be something in it!’ - People were simply too lazy
to think or even to learn.

“The first thing to which the Board of Control turned
its attention was the vital matter of employment. It
seems inconceivable to us today, but from the earliest
times of which we have any record until the formation
of the World Federation, from five to twenty-five per
cent of the working population were always idle and
without means of support. It is one of the signs of the
illogical reasoning prevalent in those times, that every-
one regarded unemployment as a necessary evil, in-
stead of a ludicrous anachronism.

“If you put one man on an uninhabited island there
would be no unemployment problem. Robinson Crusoe
had no cause to complain that he could not find work —
rather the reverse! But put a million men in a country
filled with all the necessities of life and it was entirely
reasonable that they should starve and shiver in idle-
ness. That was twentieth century logic !

“The ‘Three,’ as the original members of the Board
of Control came to be known, entered on their
tremendous task of remolding the earth ‘closer to the
hearts’ desire,’ rather poorly equipped save for un-
quenchable enthusiasm and a firm belief in the essen-
tial sanity of human nature. In their comparative ig-
norance, they probably thought that their work would
be finished in five years, at the outside.

“When the Board entered into this question of unem-
ployment and began to realize how the whole matter
was woven and interwoven with the infinite ramifica-
tions of such apparently unrelated subjects as Finance,
Banking, Transportation, Standards of Living, Inher-
itances and even Climate, the ‘Three’ must have felt
like little boys who had closed the starting switches
on an Atlantic Air Liner and then found that they
could not handle the controls! If they were discour-
aged, they showed no sign of the fact, but simply
buckled down to work with the determination that they
would do a little at a time and do that little so well
that it would not need to be changed or tampered with.

“It was George Windsor, erstwhile King of Eng-
land, who first formulated the principle of Employ-
ment which has governed the world ever since. His
words have become axiomatic throughout the length and
breadth of the World Federation. There had been much
argument in the Board Meetings as to the best way
in which to distribute the resources of the earth.
Some one brought up the suggestion of that same Bel-

lamy of whom I spoke. Bellamy’s theory was that
every man and woman, from the cradle to the grave,
should receive an annual income equal to the total
world income divided by the total population.

“‘That’s ridiculous!’ exclaimed George Windsor (I
quote from the official reports of the Conference).
‘You might as well pass a law that any person attend-
ing a public restaurant shall be obliged to eat a small
portion of every dish on the menu, whether he likes
it or not.’

“ ‘The cases are hardly parallel, sir,’ protested Ves-
trinoff, who had made the suggestion. ‘I am not pro-
posing to dole out the actual products themselves, but
the value of them. Each person could spe,nd his in-
come as he or she wished.’

“ ‘I understand that perfectly well, Vestrinoff,’ said
the young Englishman, ‘but the principle is the same.
Take ourselves as an example. You are passionately
fond of mountaineering. You would regard a day in
the mountains as wasted unless it brought you through
infinite toil and danger to the summit of some great
peak. Now I love to wander on the valley slopes and
caress the wild flowers or drink in the changing as-
pects of the scenery. Would you consider it just or
reasonable that I should be forced to follow in your
footsteps regardless of my own inclinations?’

“ ‘I think I see your point,’ said the Russian, thought-
fully. ‘You think that personal ambition and accom-
plishment should be a factor in determining individual
income?’

“ ‘Well — yes,’ said Windsor, hesitatingly.

“ ‘Gentlemen,’ interposed Pascano, ‘if this Board
differs from other bodies of idealists which have tried
and failed in the past, it is in that we are planning a
world which shall get the best out of human nature
as it is, not trying to change human nature to make
it fit an impossible Utopia. All men are not alike.
Some desire wealth and luxury, while others are happy
with the bare necessities of life, so long as they can
have peace and leisure to cultivate knowledge or friend-
ship. Whatever plan we adopt, justice must be blended
with practical expediency.’

“George Windsor had been scribbling on a slip of
paper while the Brazilian financier had been speak-
ing. Now he stood up and read quietly:

“ ‘ Healthy and congenial occupation ivith an ade-
quate income for all. Equal opportunities to all and to
each the full reward of his accomplishment. Unfair
privileges at the expense of others, to none.’

“These words, coming strangely from the lips of the
young man who had sat on the throne of the greatest
empire the world has ever known, were the foundation
stones of our social structure today. The speaker and
all his companions, gathered there under the Santa
Lucian palm trees, had long been in their graves before
the building was complete, but the threefold corner-
stone which George Windsor laid has remained invio-
late to this day.

“ ‘The Law of the Triangle,’ as it came to be known,
was the first pronouncement which emanated from the
Board of Control. It was met with a burst of enthu-
siasm from the waiting nations of the world. The
workers welcomed it as a new revelation. The wealthy
who had accumulated riches by -their own knowledge
and efforts, breathed a sigh of relief that their incomes
were not to be ruthlessly slashed to the bone by a
heartless band of idealists. Only those who were rev-
eling in luxury on the proceeds of inherited fortunes
or as the result of political patronage shook in their
shoes or girded their loins to fight the new Federation,
but they were helpless. One after another the Nations
pledged themselves to obey the Law of the Triangle.
The last to enter was the little Republic of Switzer-

446

AMAZING STORIES QUARTERLY

land, -which held off because here, alone in all the
world, men did not feel the need of any change,

I T was the inspiration of a moment to formulate the
‘Law of the Triangle,’ but it was the work of a
century to bring it to full fruition. In every land men
lost interest in the Physical Sciences and turned their
attention to the science of the Social Structure. Just
as in the early years of the century, boys had flocked
to the universities to study electricity and chemistry,
so now they crowded the institutions of learning to
delve into the mysteries of finance, psychology, trans-
portation, production and law. In 1927 there was a
popular feeling that the scientists should take a ten-
year holiday to allow the w T orld to catch up. In 1960
such a holiday actually began, to last, not for ten years,
but for over two hundred !

“One of the earliest acts of the Board of Control was
to issue an appeal that nothing should be done hastily
or without careful consideration. No man was to be
allowed to suffer as the result of the new regime.
Changes were to be gradual and spread over many
years, so that the coming generation might grow up
naturally under the Law of the Triangle, while the
passing generation would hardly realize the transfor-
mation.

“Today we live in a world which is so utterly dif-
ferent to what the idealists of the nineteenth century
predicted, that I was justified in saying that Wells
and Bellamy would be dumbfounded if they could
awake in it. We still have our millionaires; men and
women who, by unbounded ambition and hard work,
have earned the financial reward to which they are
justly entitled, but we have no one living in idleness
on the interest of accumulated money. We still have
an innumerable company who would have been called
poor in the old days, but who are no longer regarded
as such because they have everything in life that they
desire. There is no such thing today as a national
‘Standard of Living,’ because each man moulds his life
to suit his tastes. John Ballantyne lives in his huge
palace on the Hudson and no one envies him his wealth,
for he has earned it. David Windsor, descendant of
an English King, works two months in the year in the
Ballantyne factory in London, in order that he may
spend the other ten months in his Devonshire cottage
with the ancient Greek philosophers who are his
friends. He is jealous of no one, for he has what he
desires.

* * #

“T) UT I’m wandering far from the line which I had
JD intended to pursue. You will easily understand
that the intense fascination of sharing in the creation
of this Age of Social Enlightenment weaned our men
and women from the study of the physical sciences.
Little by little the spirit of research which had in-
spired" the great scientists of the earlier centuries faded
and died. Even as early as 1930 signs were not lack-
ing that some branches of science were regarded as
complete; that nothing more could be accomplished.
For example, little or no vital progress was made in
transportation for nearly sixty years after the inven-
tion of the airplane and the automobile.

“As the years went on, people came to regard the
mass of scientific knowledge as unalterable. The occa-
sional enthusiast who wished to branch out into new
lines of scientific research was looked at askance, much
as a social revolutionist or religious free-thinker was
regarded in earlier times. During the last fifty years
this prejudice has reached such an extreme that it is
a brave man who would venture to suggest that we
have anything to learn about the universe in which we
live.

“There have been rebels against the existing order
of things in all ages, and the present is no exception.
Here and there, men and women imbued with the
hunger for knowledge which is undying in the human
race, have secretly sought to delve still further into
the mysteries of Nature. Like calls to like, and a
world-wide organization has grown up, under a pledge
of the deepest secrecy, numbering in its membership
practically all those who refuse to accept the ultimatum
of the Board of Control forbidding scientific research.
This organization, of which I am Japanese Vice-
President, is known to its members as ‘The Rebels.’
We have means by which we discover possible recruits
to our ranks, and it was due to information which I
had received from certain sources that I was led to
accost you in Denver, Mr. Morton.

“Year by year ‘The Rebels’ grow stronger. The
time draws ever nearer when, we hope, by some great
scientific revelation which shall benefit the whole
world, to induce the Board of Control to remove the
ban which now rests upon Science. When that time
comes and the world enters upon a new era of progress,
it is my hope that you two gentlemen, Ralph Morton
and Geoffrey Von Elmer, may have your just share in
the great event.”

Earth’s silver satellite had passed the zenith and was
beginning to drop down towards the western moun-
tains. The glacier seemed to shine with an unearthly
radiance of its own. Wisps of gossamer clung around
the higher summits and crept sinuously through the
passes. An avalanche dashed down some hidden cou-
loir with the rumble of distant drums and the clash
of faint cymbals.

For a long time the three men sat in silence, ab-
sorbed in their own thoughts and the unutterable
beauty of the scene. When the soft accents of Ota
Umetaro’s voice had ceased, neither Ralph nor Geof-
frey had made any comment on the strange story
which the Japanese scientist had told them. There was
an unspoken understanding between these three. Each
saw with the eye of faith a world freed from the nar-
row bounds of bigotry and prejudice, ready to pursue
once more its way to grander heights and more noble
conquests. It was nothing new. In every age the
hands of the many have fettered the feet of the few.
In the twentieth century it was the social reformers
who were tied down by the mental inertia of the mob.
Now the pendulum had swung to the other extreme and
scientific progress was hopelessly impeded as it had
been in the days of Galileo, by that hatred of change,
which alone holds mankind back from becoming fully
divine.

Presently the mellow chiming of a deep-toned bell
broke in upon their thoughts.

“An extra issue of the New- York Tele-Post,” Ralph
explained, rising. “We subscribe to that and the Paris
Tele-Semaine, in order to keep in touch with the out-
side world.”

Geoffrey and the Doctor rose also.

“I should like to see your Telegon, Mr. Morton,” said
the latter. “I understand that they are slightly differ-
ent from the Japanese model, which was the invention
of Tsuki Konoma, and was authorized for use in the
Japanese Division in 2024. Of course, there has been
no change in it since then!” he added, rather bitterly.

They entered the study, a small room adjacent to the
laboratory. Geoffrey pressed a button and the Ferro-
lith walls glowed with a pearly radiance which lighted
the room without shadows. There were two desks. One
wall was lined with bookshelves. Between the desks
stood the usual Visophone with its transmitter, re-
ceiver, calling dial and opal glass viewing screen. Be-
side it was a large cabinet of polished Ferroak, one

A MODERN PROMETHEUS

447

of the numerous transmuted iron substitutes for wood.

Ralph opened the front of the cabinet and revealed a
mass of complicated machinery.

“You said something about the Paris Tele-Semaine,”
said the Doctor. “What is that? It is new to me.”

“The company was started in France last year,”
said Geoffrey. “They transmit a complete book once
a week, sometimes a novel and sometimes non-fiction.
Here is a sample volume.”

He took a book from one of the shelves and handed
it to the Doctor. It w 7 as beautifully printed on heavy
ferrotiss and bore the title, “The Influence of Friend-
ship on Mass Production, by Shani Singh.”

“But we are forgetting the Tele-Post Special,” ex-
claimed Dr. Umetaro, laying down the book and pick-
ing up the single sheet of ferrotiss which lay in the
basket. He glanced at the headlines and snapped out
an exclamation in Japanese. There was something in
this printed sheet which had broken down his custom-
ary Oriental immobility. He passed the paper to Ralph.

“Gentlemen!” he said, in a low, strained voice, “our
great opportunity has come even sooner than w r e ex-
pected.”

Staring out from the white surface of the ferrotiss
in large letters they read these words:

BRAZILIAN IRON ORE DEPOSITS UNEXPECT -
EDLY EXHAUSTED

JOHN BALLANTYNE CALLS INTERNATIONAL
CONFERENCE TO AVERT COMMERCIAL
CATASTROPHE

BOARD OF CONTROL SERIOUSLY ALARMED
CHAPTER IV
A World Crisis

J OHN BALLANTYNE was awakened from uneasy
slumber by the deep chime of the Visophone bell
at his bedside. He reached over to switch on the
viewing screen and put the earpiece of the combination
telephone to his ear. Simultaneously, the features of a
dark-skinned young man appeared upon the screen.
“What is it, Kana?” Ballantyne queried, sleepily.
“You asked me to call you at 7 :30, sir,” replied the
other. “You said you had an important meeting in
the New York office this morning.”

Ballantyne sat up fully awake. Of course! How
could he have forgotten? This was the day of the
Inter-Divisional conference which he had called to dis-
cuss the appalling situation at the mines. He had
lain awake half the night worrying about it and had
at last been forced to call for Kana to put him to sleep.
Kana had a knack for that sort of thing, like many of
the natives of Rhodesia. Some psychological or hypnotic
power, perhaps inherited from their Voodoo-worship-
ping forebears.

Ballantyne flung aside the single purple flexifer sheet
which covered him and stepped across to the east wall
of his sleeping room. A panel slipped aside, revealing
a swimming pool lined with white ferrolith tiles. The
water gleamed and sparkled in the golden light of the
early sun. His night tunic dropped around his feet
and his slim, muscular body cleft the blue water like
an arrow.

Presently he was finishing his toilet in front of a
great mirror which formed one wall of the room and
he eyed himself critically. Yes, he was as erect and
strong as he had been fifty years before, when he took
over the control of the International Ferrous Products
Company from his father. His hearing was keen, his
eyes bright, he had never known a day’s sickness in
his life. True, he thought as he brushed his hair in

the customary double parting, there were signs of gray
in the past ten years — since his son had left him. It
was a good thing he had been able to keep that affair
from the hearing of the Board of Control. They’d have
made short work of the poor fellow.

Heaven knows he’d had enough to contend with, and
now, just at the time when his eighty-five years entitled
him to a little rest and pleasure, this ore shortage had
to come up. He sighed and, turning from the mirror,
picked up his tunic and flung It over his shoulders, just
as a voice came from the speaker on the table. -

“Hurry up, John! Breakfast has been ready for an
age and I’m hungry.”

“Coming, my dear,” he replied and stepping into a
little car, like an elevator, he was swiftly carried to
the dining pavilion overlooking the Hudson River.
Here Rose, his only daughter, and Kana, his secretary
and trusted friend, were already awaiting him.

She was hardly thirty and in the full bloom of her
early youth. Her black eyes often snapped with fun,
but her full red lips sometimes seemed to droop with a
faint sadness as though the shadow of some past grief
were haunting her.

She was dressed in the universal fashion of the
times, which was in most respects similar for both
men and women, save that while the tunic for men
reached to the waist and was fastened by a light metal
chain across the throat, that of the women was knee
length and was held in place by two ribbons crossing
the chest and meeting at the back of the waist. Tunic,
breeches and sandals were often elaborately ornamented,
especially in the case of young girls. The latest mode,
which was exemplified in Rose’s garments, included a
high collar or ruff somewhat in the Elizabethan style.

In mild weather, both sexes wore the tunic hanging
down the back by its retaining chain or ribbon, leaving
the arms free, but on chilly days it was drawn forward
to envelop the body. All garments being made of
flexifer in one or more of its innumerable colors and
textures, the wonderful non-conducting properties of
which made it absolutely impervious to heat or cold, the
uncomfortable and unsanitary undergarments of past
centuries were no longer necessary. Besides this, the
love of outdoor light, which was universal in the Age
of Social Enlightenment, had so improved the average
physique that few people were inconvenienced by mod-
erate cold, and it was a common thing, in rainy weather,
to see the tunic completely discarded for the pleasure
of feeling the raindrops beating upon the bare skin.

Kana was a typical Central African Negro, short,
heavy set and muscled like a Hercules. Highly intelli-
gent and with a pleasing manner, he had become al-
most indispensable to Ballantyne during the three
years they had been associated. Rose, however, did
not share her father’s high opinion of Kana. She sub-
mitted herself to sharp self-criticism for her attitude
towards the Zulu, but was unable to overcome it.
Viewed in the light of this unreasonable prejudice,
Kana’s intelligence became craftiness, his dog-like de-
votion and understanding affection for Ballantyne be-
came self-seeking hypocrisy.

The financier kissed his daughter lightly on the
brow, shook hands with Kana and sat down to a hearty
breakfast.

“Kana told me you were going to get up early,” said
Rose, shaking her finger at him playfully. “Do you
call this early?”

“The fact is, my dear, I could not sleep, and when
I did get to sleep at last, I slept so soundly that Kana
had to call me.”

“What was the trouble, John?” asked Rose, anx-
iously. “Yo'u’re not worrying about this conference,
are you?”

448

AMAZING STORIES QUARTERLY

“No, no, Rose, not at all!” Ballantyne answered
quickly, though his light tone did not deceive the keen
ear of his daughter. She knew that he was worried,
but she also knew him. too •well and loved him too
dearly to add to his worry by plying him with questions.

“I was talking to Lotus Grenville this morning,” she
said. “She called me from Jacksonville before I was
out of bed. She’s not looking at all well, John. I knew
her guardian would be attending your old conference,
so I asked Lotus to stay with me for a few weeks, but
she said that she had made up her mind to go up to
that little log cabin of hers near Jasper.”

“Is she going by herself, Miss Ballantyne?” asked
Kana.

“Yes, quite alone,” replied the girl. “You know it’s
quite a trip from Florida to Jasper, away up in Al-
berta, Canada. She’s flying her own two-seater, so
that she may be free to come and go as she wishes.

“That’s why she called me up so early. She was leav-
ing then and called to ask us to put up her guardian
while he is in New York. Will that be all right, John?”
“Certainly! By all means!” replied her father, rising
from the table. “I was never very fond of Clifford
Weatherby, but we can hardly refuse him our hos-
pitality. Well, you must excuse us, my dear. It’s
nearly nine o’clock and we must be at the office by
nine-thirty. Coming, Kana?”

“Ready, sir!” replied the negro, folding his napkin
hastily.

A S Ballantyne’s light plane, with Kana at the eon-
. trols, rose vertically from the hangar, whose
roof opened to release it, an ever-widening landscape lay
spread beneath them. From an altitude of eight thou-
sand feet (the level reserved around all large cities for
the exclusive use of in-bound commuters), the rolling
hills, the winding river and the verdant woods pre-
sented much the same appearance as they must have
done to the first aerial voyagers, the pterodactyls, those
grotesque reptilian forerunners of the birds, which did
their share towards making the Triassic period hideous.
But the similarity was one of contour and outline only,
for the details which had been filled in to complete the
picture by the handiwork of man, would have astonished
the New Yorker of a bare two hundred years earlier.
The pride of the twentieth century New Yorker in his
city was proverbial and there was very little limit to
the growth which was thought possible for the great-
est city of the. Western World, but even the most opti-
mistic would have balked at the suggestion of an area
increased by five hundred fold in a little over two cen-
turies. Yet such an estimate would have fallen short
of the truth.

Buildings of every conceivable size and architecture
dotted the landscape as far as the eye could reach. If
a giant could have placed one leg of an immense pair
of compasses upon Central Park and, with the other
leg, describe a semicircle having a radius of a hun-
dred miles, its circumference would not have enclosed
the City of New York as John Ballantyne knew it in
the year 2200. Rapid transportation, already an accom-
plished fact in the days of the first Ballantyne, had, at
that time, done little to transform the daily habits of
man, but as the years passed there was born a growing
realization of the fact that it was no longer neces-
sary to crowd ten million bodies intcf an area so small
and congested that health and happiness were virtually
impossible.

If the earliest effect of “The Law of the Triangle”
in shortening the necessary hours of labor produced an
almost revolutionary transformation in the life-
habits of mankind, its corollary, the cheapening of rapid
transit, had results equally surprising. Residential dis-

tricts began to spread over larger and larger areas
until it was no uncommon thing for workers to live at
distances of a hundred miles or more from their places
of business. The “Back to Nature” movement which
originated in the twentieth century became an accom-
plished fact in the twenty-second, because each man
could place his house as far from those of his neighbors
as he wished, and surround himself with such combina-
tions of natural beauty in mountain, lake or sea, as only
the wealthiest could have afforded under the old, dis-
carded system. Fictitious land values, created as the
direct result of crowded cities, passed out of existence
when traffic regulations were altered to permit of speeds
up to two hundred miles per hour on the ground and
four hundred in the air.

Ten minutes after leaving the Eyrie, Ballantyne and
Kana passed over the great Windsor playgrounds and
reached the outskirts of the business portion of New
York. The mighty canyons and mountainous skyline
which were the pride of early New York had passed into
the limbo of forgotten things and in their places were
huge buildings of carven ferrolith, rarely more than
two stories in height, but covering an immense extent of
ground. Far to the east, the huge bulk of the Central
Distribution Building flashed like a great sapphire from
its vantage point on Ellis Island. Here an endless pro-
cession of freight planes from all parts of the world dis-
charged loads of wealth for distribution to the factories.
True, the introduction of transmuted iron had tremen-
dously decreased the demand for natural products, but
there still remained many substances which could not
be replaced by any form of iron. The successful produc-
tion of synthetic food, one of the latest inventions be-
fore the Age of Social Enlightenment put a stop to sci-
entific progress, was a barren discovery, for man still
preferred to let nature grow his food !

Countless thousands of planes of every size, from the
tiny two-seaters to the huge machines of the interurban
lines, were converging from every direction, and Kana
was obliged to use all his skill to cut his way out of the
traffic stream at their destination. Near the center of
the city was a small, highly ornate building of crimson
ferrolith, bearing on its flat roof the name “Interna-
tional Ferrous Corporation — Central Offices.” When di-
rectly above this building, Kana allowed the plane to fall
vertically, the lifting helices idling on their shafts.
When about five hundred feet above the roof he pressed
a button. A siren mounted on the bottom of the plane
emitted a blast of sound at a frequency so high as to be
inaudible. A diaphragm on the roof, tuned to the par-
ticular frequency of Kana’s siren, served to close the cir-
cuit of a small motor which, in turn, swung open two
panels, revealing Ballantyne’s private hangar, into
which Kana dropped as lightly as a feather and with the
finish and accuracy of the trained flier.

As the financier stepped out of the plane into a small
luxuriously furnished waiting room, he was greeted by
a little man whose outstretched hand and broad smile
gave an effect of cordiality which was weakened by his
shifty, light gray eyes and the unpleasant cast of fea-
ture which were almost fox-like in their cadaverousness.

"Glad to see you again, Ballantyne!” he exclaimed ef-
fusively. “You’re still as healthy looking as ever, in
spite of your years.”

“I wish I could say the same for you, Weatherby,” re-
plied the other, shaking hands. “You look as though
you were working too hard.”

“It’s a choice of working or starving,” the little man
replied fretfully. “If I wasn’t wide awake, I should soon
lose the little I have accumulated, what with these new
regulations the Board of Control have put into effect.
They don’t seem to realize the privileges which are the
just due of the wealthy.”

A MODERN PROMETHEUS

449

“I’m afraid that your sentiments are a bit out of
date,” laughed Ballantyne. “But of course you don’t
mean what you say. Such ideas are contrary to the
Law of the Triangle!”

“I’m not in the habit of saying what I don’t mean,”
snapped Weatherby, irritably. “However, I didn’t come
up to discuss obsolete laws but to thank you for your in-
vitation to stay at the Eyrie. I regret that I am obliged
to decline, as it will be impossible for me to leave the
Florida mines for longer than one day.”

“That’s too bad,” replied Ballantyne amicably. “From
what your ward said, Rose and myself were looking for-
ward to having you with us for a few days. However,
you know your own business best.”

The three men stepped into a small private elevator
and dropped two stories to the great assembly room,
which was devoted to business conferences amongst the
department chiefs in the huge corporation of which Bal-
lantyne was president and manager. This hall, which
covered the entire second floor of the building, was as
unlike the average “directors’ room” of the early days
as can possibly be imagined. It resembled a palatial ro-
tunda in some great hotel. Deep carpets of crimson
ferrovell covered the floor. Cushioned chairs were scat-
tered at intervals without any attempt at formal ar-
rangement. The view, unobstructed save by a single
row of delicate columns, showed on one side a vista of
gardens, trees and fountains. On the other side was
the sea, its clear waves, unsullied by the defilement
which was universal in the days of ocean liners, lapped
the very foundations of the building and glistened
cheerfully in the morning sun.

When Ballantyne, Kana and Weatherby stepped into
the room, it was already filled with an assemblage of
men and women, whose brilliantly colored tunics gave
the impression of a social gathering rather than of a
solemn business conclave. Here w r ere the representa-
tives of the transmuted iron industry with its nu-
merous branches from all parts of the wrnrld. There
was La Bissoniere, manager of the French Flexifer fac-
tories; Von Esterholtz, president of the German mines;
Ho Cheng, suave and inscrutable, from the Chinese
division; Beecham, the tall blond Englishman, and a
hundred others.

A MID the blaze of rainbow hues, three figures stood
k out in marked contrast. Two were men, one a
woman. They alone of the assemblage were clad in pure
white, unrelieved by any ornament save for a large tri-
angle embroidered upon the back of each tunic, in the
three primary colors of the spectrum, blue, red and yel-
low. They were Hector Shawn, Kanzo Singh and Felice
Mincheau, “The Three” who were for that decade joint
presidents of the Board of Control. They had broken
all precedents by leaving the confines of Santa Lucia
to attend this meeting, realizing that, for the first time
in nearly two centuries, the happiness and prosperity
of the world were at stake.

The crowd parted respectfully to allow Ballantyne to
cross the room to where the Three were seated. They
rose as he approached and each greeted him with a
warm handclasp and the salutation, “Your wish!” the
phrase which had largely displanted the old-fashioned
“How d’ you do?” in these days, when universal good
health had rendered the latter expression redundant.
The modern greeting is, of course, an abbreviation of
“May you have your wish!”

“Eight years have passed since last we saw you,
John Ballantyne,” said Shawn. “They might well have
- been eight rose petals for all the change we see in you.”
“What should the years be but rose petals,” returned
Ballantyne lightly, “when I have a rosebud — my daugh-
ter Rose — to watch over my happiness?”

“And your son?” queried Felice Mincheau, “Ralph,
is it not? Soon he will be ready to take the burden
from your so heavily laden shoulders !”

A fleeting shadow passed over Ballantyne’s face.

“He is away on — on a visit,” he replied, and then
turning hastily to the tall Hindoo, “Your wish! Kanzo
Singh. The time is not far distant when you will be
free to return to your beloved garden in Nepal. The
world can ill spare you.”

“May the All Wise grant that the world have no
greater troubles than such passing regrets!” said the
Hindoo gravely. He pointed towards the sea. “The
ripples glitter bravely in the sunshine,” he said, “but
when the storm rages, the ripples are forgotten.”

Somewhere a bell chimed the hour with golden tones.

“Ten o’clock,” said Ballantyne. “Will the Three honor
me with their presence on the rostrum ?”

He led the way towards a slightly raised platform
at one side of the room. As the four moved, the groups
of delegates broke up and sought seats. Clifford Weath-
erby, whose wealth and importance might well have
justified his assuming a place on the platform, seated
himself at the back of the room, close to the balcony
which overhung the sea.

Kana followed Ballantyne to the platform, around
which were grouped the reporters from the various
telenewspapers. As he was about to step on to the
rostrum, Ballantyne paused and looked fixedly at one of
the reporters, a tall, handsome young man with very
regular features and skin of a light brown. After a
moment’s hesitation, Ballantyne spoke.

“Your wish, sir! May. I ask your name?”

“Your wish, Mr. Ballantyne,” replied the young man,
bowing. “I am Morton of the New York Tele-Standard.”

“Forgive my abruptness, Mr. Morton. Your face re-
minds me of someone — someone I once knew.

The others had stood by courteously during this brief
conversation, but as Ballantyne turned away, Kanzo
Singh, with an instinctive feeling that the incident was
not closed in Ballantyne’s mind, spoke to young Morton
quietly.

“You are from the Hindoostan Division, Mr.
Morton?”

“Your wish, Kanzo Singh of the Three,” replied
Morton formally. “My mother was of the American
Division.”

“Ah ! That accounts for your light skin and regular
features,” said the Hindoo. “And your father?”

Before Morton could reply to this question, Ballantyne
called to Kanzo Singh to take his place and stood up to
open the meeting. This he did with a total absence of
formality, simply raising his hand and speaking in a
quiet voice, which, thanks to the faultless acoustic con-
struction of the ceiling, was audible in every part of
the great room.

“As President of the Ironmasters of the World,”
he began, “it is my duty to receive reports from the
various mines and oversee the distribution of the ore
to the factories.

“During the past two years the nature of these re-
ports has been more and more disturbing. I need
hardly point out to you that since the discovery of
allotropie iron by my great-great-grandfather, the ma-
terial comfort and progress of the world has come to
depend to a large extent upon the unhampered operation
of the iron industry. To take one example, if some
unforeseen catastrophe rendered the further manufac-
ture of flexifer fabrics impossible, it would be many
years before we should be able to revive the forgotten
arts of weaving and spinning. In the meantime, it is
not too much to say that the world would revert from
civilization to a condition of naked savagery.

“The same reasoning applies to all the branches of

450

AMAZING STORIES QUARTERLY

the iron industry. A shortage of iron would result
in a shortage of all the necessities of life with the
sole exception of food. Even foodstuffs could not be
distributed in the absence of the machinery which iron
alone makes possible.

“I spoke of the disturbing reports from the mines.
What these reports signify you can judge for your-
selves after hearing what the Departmental Chiefs
have to say. Ho Cheng, will you describe what you have
found in the Chinese mines?”

The Chinese engineer spoke from his place near the
rostrum. Like Ballantyne he spoke without the mean-
ingless preliminaries of olden days, coming straight to
the point.

“Three years ago,” he said, “some of the workers
called my attention to a remarkable phenomenon. In
several places in the Sun Kee mine, veins of ore which
were being excavated by means of vertical shafts, came
to an end suddenly, and below the magnetite was found
a peculiar mineral with which none of us was familiar.
I said that the ore came to an end suddenly, but I should
rather have said that this unknown mineral blended
and interpenetrated with the ore, as though the one
were a product of the other.

“Chemical analysis revealed the surprising fact that
the mineral was a sulphide of gold. This metal being
practically valueless, the workings were, of course,
abandoned and the men transferred elsewhere. About
a year later, one of the Sub-Chiefs asked me to come
and look at a certain shaft. It was the first shaft in
which the sulphide of gold had been found. What was
my surprise to find that the sulphide had spread up-
ward, almost like a disease, the upper level being now
twenty feet above the bottom of the shaft !

“Since that date we have made careful inspection of
all mine shafts in the Chinese division and have found
that the whole body of iron ore wherever distributed
throughout western Asia, is slowly being converted into
sulphide of gold from below. What is causing this
change we have not been able to ascertain, but, as I have
said, it seems to partake of the nature of a disease.”
George Beecham, the tall, blond Englishman, rose.
“Conditions in the English mines are substantially
the same as those reported by Ho Cheng. The ore is
slowly being destroyed from below. I may add, how-
ever, that we have discovered that this disease is appar-
ently like the germ diseases of the past. It is infectious
by contact. A sample of ore taken from a point ten
feet above the advancing sulphide and kept in a glass
tube, remains unchanged until the present time, al-
though the infection has long since advanced past the
point from which it was taken.”

“I can add one more observation,” said La Bissoniere.
“We have made a careful study of this gold sulphide
in the French division and we find that it is simply
what it appears to be: sulphide of gold. We had some
hopes that it might be merely some form of transmuted
iron with the properties of the gold compound. This
hope is without foundation. The mineral is worthless
and we can only stand and watch billions of dollars’
worth of iron ore vanishing before our eyes.”

O NE after another the mine chiefs added their quota
to the alarming news and as each speaker con-
cluded his brief report, amazement and consternation
became more apparent upon the faces of the listeners.
The extreme seriousness of the situation might have
failed to impress the world of the twentieth century
when commercial products were so immensely diversi-
fied that the total destruction of any one of them would
have resulted in little more than a passing depression,
but with the discovery of allotropic iron, the world had
put all its eggs into one basket. The apparent inexhaus-

tibility of the ore deposits justified the belief that the
basket was reliable. Then, out of a clear sky, or rather
out of the bowels of the earth, came this mysterious dis-
ease which was consuming the one substance upon which
civilization depended, much as leprosy and cancer, those
horrible, obsolete plagues of the past, consumed human
flesh.

When the last of the mine chiefs had said his say and
taken his seat, there was silence for some few moments
and then Hector Shawn rose and came to the edge of
the rostrum. Of the three, Shawn, the big, swarthy
Irishman, was the best qualified to grasp the seriousness
of this world crisis, for he had been a mine chief under
Ballantyne before he was appointed to a share in the
highest office in the Board of Control on the island of
Santa Lucia.

“You have heard,” he said, incisively. “You under-
stand. There is no need for discussion. Discussion is
wise only when there is a choice of paths. In this mat-
ter we have no choice. We must save whatever portion
of the untainted ore remains. The Three will call for
volunteers to aid the mine workers in removing the ore
as quickly as possible and storing it in some place safe
from infection. While this remnant is being consumed,
we must go back to the habits of our forefathers and
learn to grow wool and cotton, to weave and to spin.
We must grow new forests of pine and oak. We must
train carpenters and stonecutters. We must study all
the arts which flourished in former centuries and train
our children in the practice of them.

“I have spoken. Is the Three in accord ?”

Kanzo Singh and Felice Mincheau raised their arms
in a peculiar gesture, placing the thumbs and forefin-
gers of the hands together to form a triangle. It was
the sign of official assent. Shawn acknowledged it by
a similar motion and resumed his seat.

The Three had spoken. They had met the crisis and
passed judgment in accord, as they and their predeces-
sors had passed judgment innumerable times in the
past. There remained nothing further to be said or
done. The assembled delegates were content, all save
one. Morton, the young, dark-skinned reporter, rose
hesitatingly to his feet and faced the rostrum.

“Will the Three grant me leave to speak?” he asked,
modestly.

“Speak!” replied Shawn.

“The Three has passed judgment in accord,” said the
young man quietly. “Not for two centuries has any man
questioned a decree of the Three in accord. But not for
two centuries — no, nor for twenty centuries has the
world faced a crisis like this. Shall we sit supine and
raise no hand to keep the civilization which we have
built up since Walter Ballantyne explored the secret
places of science so long ago? Does not science still
hold secrets which are greater than any she has revealed
in the past?

“It is said that there is a society of scientists known
to its members as ‘The Rebels.’ Who knows but that
these Rebels may make some new discovery which will
restore to us our iron mines or provide new sources of
transmuted iron? Let us appeal to them. Let us ”

His speech was abruptly cut short. Kanzo Singh,
who had with difficulty controlled his indignation,
sprang to his feet and towered with outstretched arms
and flashing eyes above the unfortunate reporter.

“Silence!” he roared. “0, impious young man! It is
well for you that your youth and inexperience disposes
the Three to leniency. Is it not written in the Sacred
Books of Science that nothing shall be added to or taken
from the divine revelations which our forefathers have
handed down to us? Have not our wise men said that
there is no remedy for this plague which is destroying
our mines? Shall we question their knowledge?

A MODERN PROMETHEUS

451

“As for these Rebels who would tamper with the ap-
pointed body of science, would that the Three could lay
hands upon the accursed heretics and wipe them from
the face of the earth they defile by their presence !

“I have spoken! Is the Three in accord?”

Again the Three gave the sign of the Triangle. There
was a murmur of approval from the listeners. Faces
showed every degree of emotion from disapproval to
horror. Only John Ballantyne ventured a glance of
sympathy at the young man who had dared to brave
the anger of the mighty Three ; who had flung his con-
victions in the teeth of universal public belief. Some-
how he found his memory harking back to that day in
the Eyrie when another young man, his dearly loved
son, had left him forever, rather than give up the pur-
suits he loved. He saw him again, as he tightened his
muscles in a grim determination to continue unham-
pered in his scientific research and experimentation —
until such time when the world would realize the
value and need of such work.

Meanwhile Clifford Weatherby, the little Florida
financier, had risen in his place by the balcony and was
speaking.

“The Three has done well in crushing this vile heresy
in the bud,” he exclaimed harshly. “It will be a sad day
for the world when freedom of speech is extended to
the point where such opinions are tolerated. Never-
theless, I crave permission to make a suggestion. It
was taught in the old days that the welfare of mankind
rested in the hands of the wealthy. Surely we have
not outgrown this splendid teaching! I declare with-
out hesitation that this great crisis is a divinely sent
opportunity to re-establish the rule of Capital. Let us
do as the Three have ordained, but let us go a step fur-
ther. Let us hold what iron remains to us and sell it to
the highest bidders.

“With the wealth of the world in our grasp we,
rulers by the divine right of wealth, can resume once
more the supreme sway which is our right.”

If the heretical speech of the young reporter awak-
ened indignation in the breasts of his hearers, it was
as nothing to the wave of horror which swept across
the assembly at Weatherby’s words. The destruction of
the iron mines meant poverty, but Weatherby’s inhuman
suggestion meant anarchy !

The accustomed calm was broken by shouts of fury.

“The Triangle! The Triangle! We invoke the Law
of the Triangle!”

Men and women surged towards the wizened figure
of the little Floridian who stood grinning and gnashing
his teeth impotently.

“In the name of the Triangle, seize that man!” came
Hector Shawn’s deep voice.

A dozen men and women converged towards the bal-
cony, Morton, the young reporter, among the first. A
dozen arms were stretched out to grasp the vulpine fig-
ure which stood shaking its fist and trembling, by the
pillars overlooking the sea.

But before a hand could be laid upon him, Weatherby
turned and with surprising agility, leaped to the balus-
trade, stood poised there for a moment, then sprang into
space.

There was a rush to the balcony. Heads craned over
expecting to see the mangled corpse of the financier
upon the rocks two hundred feet below. Instead, there
was a tiny plane, hovering on its slowly turning helices.
Weatherby was in the act of climbing into the seat by
the pilot.

He looked up at the line of angry faces and shook his
puny fist once more. Then the plane rose like a rocket
and hurtled out towards the open sea.

Clifford Weatherby had shown his qualities as a strat-
egist by covering his retreat!

CHAPTER V
Beneath the Glacier

T HE afternoon sun beat down from a sky of cloud-
less sapphire into the hidden valley in the heart
of the Canadian Rockies. Over the spotless snow-
fields, the heat shimmered with an almost intolerable
glare. The contour of the nearer rocks stood out with
lunar distinctness in the intense contrast of light and
shade, but in the middle distance, the cliffs and but-
tresses veiled themselves in the heat haze like a
woman who adds to her allurements by half concealing
her charms.

Ralph Morton avoided the reflected rays as much as
possible by keeping to the centre of the glacier where a
longitudinal band of gravel and small stones formed a
medial moraine. This moraine, composed of debris from
the cliffs at the head of the valley, formed a pavement
of such exceptional smoothness and regularity that it
almost resembled a road, save that at intervals its
progress was broken by small transverse crevasses,
caused by irregularities in the bed rock over which the
ice was obliged to flow T , just as hidden sandbars in the
bed of a stream cause ripples on the surface of the
water.

Ralph swung along at a steady pace in his high climb-
ing boots and jumped the occasional crevasses, none of
which were more than a couple of feet in width. He
whistled blithely to himself, rejoicing in the first free-
dom from work which he had permitted himself for
nearly a month.

He, Geoffrey and Dr. Umetaro had mutually agreed to
take an afternoon off and now each of the friends was
spending it in his own w r ay. Geoffrey was taking a long
flight over the barren lands of the north ; the Japanese
doctor had elected to sit on the balcony of the workshop
and meditate; while Ralph had taken his ice axe and
gone for a tramp to the great icefalls at the head of the
glacier.

Ralph’s eyes were on the sublime scenery which sur-
rounded him, but his thoughts were on the stirring
events of the past four weeks. They passed in pano-
rama before his mind, each seeming to be a step towards
the attainment of a boyhood ambition, until now he was
faced by a blank wall which rendered further progress
impossible.

When he and Geoffrey came to this secluded spot and
built their aerial workshop, they had only the most
indefinite plans for the future. They were stimulated
by an unaltering determination to break down the artifi-
cial barriers with which man had surrounded the nat-
ural sciences, declaring “Thus far shalt thou go and no
farther!” Just as the devout in past ages believed that
religion was a complete revelation, so in these days, the
dawn of the twenty-third century, man believed that
science was finished. They studied the ancient writings
and utilized to the full the teachings of the great scien-
tists of the past, but the idea that science was suscepti-
ble to further progress was utterly abhorrent to them.

Ralph and Geoffrey were scientific freethinkers. They
longed to break down these artificial barriers and show
to the world by some great discovery that infinite possi-
bilities still lay hidden in the womb of Nature. This
supreme ambition sustained them through the years of
preliminary study. At last they had decided to concen-
trate their efforts on the mysterious problems of life
and growth. Then came Ralph’s encounter with Dr.
Umetaro in Denver. The young student snatched at the
chance of enlisting the Japanese surgeon in the work
which they had undertaken, but before the new partner-
ship could begin to function came the news of the sud-
den shortage of iron ore and the three friends realized
that their great chance 'was before them. If they could

452 AMAZING STORIES QUARTERLY

There was a rush to
the balcony. Heads
craned over expecting
to see the mangled
corpse of the financier
upon the rocks two
hundred feet below.

demonstrate that science and science alone could deal
with this world crisis, science would once more resume
her place as the symbol of progress, instead of welter-
ing in a condition of stagnation,

Ralph had disguised himself and gone to New York
where, through Dr. Umetaro’s influence, he obtained a
position on the staff of the Tele-Standard. He attended
the great meeting of the ironmasters, filled with the
enthusiasm of youth. It was inconceivable that man-
kind could refuse to accept the help of science in this
hour of travail. Next day he returned to the workshop
in the mountains, crushed and humiliated. His sugges-
tion had been spurned with horror and indignation. He
had been branded as “Heretic” and “Traitor” and only
«“• his youth and the excitement incident to the dramatic
escape of Clifford Weatherby, had saved him from im-
prisonment or worse.

Dr. Umetaro had received the news of Ralph’s defeat
with Oriental indifference. He had expected nothing
else, knowing the inertia and hatred of change which
characterizes the average human mind.

“In your absence,” he told Ralph, “I have been in
touch with our fellow scientists, the Rebels, in all
parts of the world. They are unanimous that all work
shall be dropped in order that our energies may be
devoted entirely to this problem. Our spies have ob-
tained samples of this sulphide of gold which is destroy-
ing the iron ores and these samples have been distrib-
uted to the secret research laboratories in all Divisions.
Our share has arrived and we must now throw ourselves
into the task of finding some way of reversing the action
of this mysterious disease. One thing is logically cer-
tain. The gold sulphide is a product of the transmuta-
tion of oxide of iron. Therefore there must be some

A MODERN PROMETHEUS

453

process by which it can be restored to its original form.

“And now, to work! Knowing that our efforts are
being supported by a thousand eager hands and brains
wherever the Rebels are found.”

A MONTH later the enthusiasm of the three friends
was undimmed, but their optimism was sadly
diminished. They subjected the sulphide of gold to every
reagent and treatment, physical, electrical, chemical and
radiological, which their combined ingenuity could de-
vise, but without a trace of success. The Doctor, who
kept in constant touch with the Headquarters of the
Rebels by means of a portable radio set which he had
brought from Japan, had nothing but negative news to
report. Iron still remained the master element. It alone
was capable of endless varieties of allotropic forms. Gold
was practically worthless. It possessed properties of
resistance to corrosion and ductility, which rendered it
useful in certain very restricted fields, as, for example,
for cooking utensils, but that was all that could be said
for it. As a substitute for the widespread uses of iron,
it was unthinkable.

Must the world pay for its marvelous social advance-
ment by a corresponding setback in material civiliza-
tion ? Was there no remedy for the loss of the iron
mines save the retrograde policy decreed by the Three?
Was it possible that science would fail her worshippers
in the hour of their need?

Such thoughts as these passed through Ralph’s mind
as he followed the winding course of the great ice-river.
Presently he rounded a bulging buttress of grey rock
and entered the confines of the huge amphitheatre in
which the glacier had its source.

Science and the world crisis were driven from his
mind by the transcendent beauty of the seene. In the
centre rose a pinnacle of black limestone earning a
horizontal band of red strata, like a dagger of obsidian
inlaid with rubies. On one side of this turret an ice-
fall glittered in the sun with a riot of prismatic hues ;
on the other a curtain of virgin snow seemed to hang
pendant from the peaks, its spotless surface sweeping
down in a wealth of gracious curves, which would have
put the sculptor’s art to shame.

Ralph’s eyes took in the magnificent panorama of
rock and ice and snow with a rapture which lost none of
its keenness with familiarity. He had climbed that
black dagger by a dozen different routes. He had
threaded his way through the tangled maze of the ice-
fall to the frozen summit of the peak it guarded. He
had plodded up that shining snow-curtain and over the
ten thousand-foot pass which led into the adjacent
valley.

He allowed his vision to travel slowly up the white
curves, living again in recollection the happy days he
had spent amid their unsullied expanses. Suddenly his
attention was fixed by a moving speck, a spot of pale
blue, which on closer inspection resolved itself into a
human figure working its way down the steep slopes
below the pass.

His surprise was mingled with dismay. He and Geof-
frey had chosen this wild valley for their workshop and
laboratory, secure in their belief that no other human
being was likely to intrude upon their privacy. Was
this privacy to be broken in upon by curious outsiders?
At this time, of all others, the result of discovery
might be disastrous. Once the Three got wind of their
investigations, Ralph and his friends would be forced
to flee, or face the certainty of imprisonment as disturb-
ers of the world’s welfare.

Ralph pulled out a light telescope from a pocket of
his tunic and examined the distant figure, which was
slowly but steadily descending towards him. It w'as a
woman; a young girl, apparently. As she drew nearer,

he could see that her body was that of a young Diana,
lithe and beautiful. Poised like an eagle in full flight,
she carried her head with boyish alertness. The softly
blending contours of her throat and breasts echoed the
gracious curves of the snowfields that she was descend-
ing. Her skin was burned to creamy tan by exposure to
the ardent sun of the northern summer. She braced
herself with skill and confidence by means of her
climber’s axe as she drove her heavily booted heels into
the yielding surface of the steep snow.

As Ralph watched her, the girl reached a point where
the slope eased off into the borders of the curtain, whose
hem rested upon the glacial ice a hundred yards from
where he stood. She was now near enough so that she
was distinctly visible without the aid of the glass. Ralph
saw her stop, transfer her ice axe to the other hand, and
rest its point upon the slope behind her. Next moment
she was skimming down the snow like a feather,
body erect, one foot advanced, the other knee bent, in
the graceful “standing glissade” of the born mountaineer.

Ralph’s instinctive admiration was changed into a
thrill of horror as he realized that the girl was sliding
to almost certain death. At one point the “hem” of the
snow curtain, instead of resting upon the level ice, was
separated from it by a great crevasse or “bergsehrund”
as it is known to climbers. The intrepid climber was
flashing down into the jaws of this abyss, whose depths
might reach to the very bottom of the ice.

Shouting warnings, Ralph started to run towards the
bergsehrund. There was a good chance that the girl
could stop herself in time to avoid the threatened dis-
aster, but the very thing which was her only hope of
salvation, proved to be her undoing. Believing herself
to be alone, the sudden outburst of sound disturbed the
delicacy of her balance. She turned her head. The axe
was whipped from her grasp. She tripped, fell forward,
lost all semblance of control. She shot downward with
ever increasing speed until she passed over the lip of
the crevasse and vanished into the indigo depths, just as
Ralph ended his mad race at the near edge.

He flung himself face downward upon the ice, frantic
with dismay. It was incredible that this fair girl, the
living embodiment of joyous health should, in the flash
of an eye, have been hurled into Eternity. Was it possi-
ble that she still lived? Dared he entertain a trace of
hope after such a fearful plunge? He shouted. There
was no answer but the slow drip of water falling into a
mystery of purple shadows.

Yes, there was a faint chance that the girl might
have escaped instant death. Just below the trough,
which marked the course of her helpless body down the
snow-slope, the wall of the bergsehrund instead of being
vertical, followed the angle of the slope above, thus
forming a projection, something like the flying but-
tresses which jut out from the walls of old cathedrals.
If by some miracle the girl’s helpless body had followed
the course of this narrow ramp, whose lower end was
hidden in gloom, and had landed upon the pile of ava-
lanche snow which often choked the bottom of such cre-
vasses, there was a bare possibility that she might have
survived. Perhaps, even now, she was regaining con-
sciousness, only to be faced with the terrible certainty
of death by freezing.

Ralph had no intention of leaving the spot until he
had rescued the girl or made certain that she was dead.
He would descend into the bergsehrund no matter what
the risk.

Everywhere the icy walls fell away sheer, save for the
ramp and that was on the opposite side of the crevasse,
which gaped to its full width of a dozen yards along
the whole breadth of the mountain. At one place a frail
bridge of frozen snow, the remnant of some avalanche
which had filled the bergsehrund earlier in the year,

454

AMAZING STORIES QUARTERLY

spanned the gulf and offered the only means of gaining
the top of the ramp.

R ALPH had crossed many such bridges in the past.

He had descended slopes of slippery ice fully as
steep as that awful ramp. It was one thing to face
such perils with trusted companions to whom he was
united by means of the alpinists’ rope and quite another
thing to take his life in his hands alone, with the cer-
tainty that a single mis-step spelled sure death.

He crossed the bridge sprawled out at full length to
distribute his weight. More than once he felt the snow
settle under the strain. At last with a gasp of relief,
he dug his axe into solid snow and drew himself to
safety.

If the crossing of the snow bridge had seemed to
occupy a lifetime of suspense, surely the descent of the
ice ramp must be measured in terms of eternity! The
steps he cut were little more than niches for the nailed
edges of his boots. The cutting of each new step repre-
sented new tortures of insecurity ; periods during which
the stability of his balance was constantly threatened
by the necessity of leaning down to swing the axe.

Fifty, seventy, a hundred feet. His difficulties were
increasing with every foot, for the gathering darkness
and the weird, unreal shadows, tended to make his
equilibrium even more uncertain. The bergschrund was
wedge-shaped and the walls were closing in on him. The
farther wall was now a bare three yards away.

He peered down, but could distinguish nothing. The
narrowing walls added a new horror to a situation al-
ready terrible enough. What if the girl were lying
crushed between the jaws of ice, head downwards, still
living, but held in a grip from which it would be impos-
sible to extricate her ?

Chip! chip! chip! The splinters of ice tinkled down
and disappeared into silence and darkness. Suddenly,
when he was beginning to w r onder how much longer his
tortured muscles could stand the strain, he swung his
axe to cut one more step and its blade encountered some-
thing soft. For a moment he tottered helplessly, strug-
gling to regain his balance, and then plunged head fore-
most into a pile of wet snow.

He sat up and looked around him. For a few moments
he could distinguish nothing. Then his eyes became
accustomed to the dim, ultramarine light and he saw
the body of the girl lying close to where he had fallen,
a pitiful little crumpled hdap.

He placed a hand over her heart and felt a faint
throb. She was alive! Snatching off his tunic, he
wrapped it around her and began to chafe her icy hands
and arms. Presently he was rewarded by a sigh, fol-
lowed by a slight movement.

How lovely she was! But how fearfully white, save
where a smear of crimson blood marred her forehead
and matted the tendrils of her fair hair. He slipped one
arm around her shoulders to raise her from the snow.

At the touch, her lashes trembled and then rose, re-
vealing eyes like the petals of a purple pansy; eyes
which looked at him in wonder and then with amaze-
ment and fear.

“Oh! Where am I? What has happened?” she
murmured.

“Don’t be frightened,” said Ralph, reassuringly.
“You had an accident, but you’re safe now.”

“I — I don’t understand. I was coming down from the
pass. Someone shouted and then I fell. Was it you
who shouted? What is this awful place?”

“Yes, I shouted to warn you,” said Ralph, continuing
his efforts to restore circulation. “There was a berg-
schrund at the bottom of the slope and you fell into it.
You shouldn’t glissade a slope unless you know where it
ends, you know,” he added sententiously, “there’s near-

ly always a bergschrund where a snowfield -joins a
glacier.”

“Thank you so much for telling me,” said the girl,
with a faint touch of satire, softened by a most adorable
smile. Ralph was beginning to think that life was well
worth living, even at the bottom of a glacier, when beau-
tiful girls smiled at one like that !

“Are we at the bottom of the bergschrund now?” she
asked, “And how did you get down here?”

“I came down the same way you did,” Ralph an-
swered, “only not quite so fast. I had to cut steps and
it took a long time, I’m afraid.”

“Well, I really had begun to wonder what was keep-
ing you,” said the girl with a little choking, hysterical
laugh. “I th-th-think you must have saved my life.”
She burst into an agony of tears and buried her face on
his shoulder, while he patted her golden curls and mur-
mured incoherent phrases of comfort.

Presently she raised her streaming eyes to his.

“I’m sorry. I did make several kinds of fool of my-
self. Please forgive me. You see, I haven’t made a
habit of falling into bergschrunds. This is my first
attempt and I seem to have made rather a mess of it.”

“You’re not hurt, are you?” asked Ralph solicitously.

“No, thank you,” she replied. “At least, I don’t think
so. Will you please help me up?”

With Ralph’s aid, she struggled to her feet and stood
looking around.

“No bones broken. Bruise on one knee and an awful
headache,” she summed up. “Not so bad for a first
effort. Oh! I’ve got your tunic! You poor fellow, you
must be frozen. No, I insist on your taking it. I’m
perfectly warm now.”

Ralph experienced little unfamiliar tremors in his
spinal column as she wrapped the tunic around his shoul-
ders and fastened the throat-chain by means of the
earved name-plate, which was universally worn, by men
on the front of the neck, and by w r omen at the intersec-
tion of the breast-ribbons.

“And now, Ralph Morton, what about getting out
again?” she said.

Ralph glanced at the triangular golden plate on her
bosom. It bore the name “Lotus Grenville.” Lotus!
Where had he heard that name before? Such an un-
common name and yet so perfectly in harmony with its
bearer. She shone in that awful place like some glori-
ous tropical blossom in the last gleam of twilight.

“If you are strong enough, Lotus Grenville,” he re-
plied, as he took her hand, his lips lingering over the
name with the sensation of a caress, “we will try to
solve that problem.”

Ralph faced the problem of their escape w'ith the same
matter-of-fact courage with which he had tackled the
descent of the ice-ramp, but with even less hope of suc-
cess. He knew that he could return by the way he came,
but as for taking Lotus up those appalling steps, he dis-
missed the idea without a moment’s consideration. If
his splendid muscles had almost failed him on the de-
scent, what chance was there of Lotus reaching the
top, shaken and exhausted as she was by her terrible
experience.

“I shall have to explore a bit,” he said, cheerfully.
“Do you mind being left alone for a few minutes?”

“Of course not, Ralph,” the girl replied, bravely.
“You won’t be long, will you?”

“Not a second longer that I can help. I want to find
the easiest way up.”

The pile of soft snow upon which Lotus had fallen
filled the space between the two sides of the bergschrund
which, at this point, was about eight feet wide and ran
in both directions like a narrow passage with walls of
purple ice a hundred feet in height and a ceiling of blue
sky and white, drifting clouds.

A MODERN PROMETHEUS 455

R ALPH started eastward along the passage, hoping
that he might find some narrow place filled with
snow, up which he might scoop a ladder of steps to the
surface.

Almost immediately he found himself descending the
mound of snow and he set foot on solid rock, the actual
bed of the glacier, polished to the smoothness of a ferro-
lith pavement by the slow, eternal progress of the ice-
river.

As he continued along the length of the bergschrund,
he noted with some surprise that the rock of which the
pavement was formed, differed from any mineral which
he had ever encountered in his long experience of geol-
ogy. Even the urgent nature of his quest for freedom
could not entirely suppress the enthusiasm of the scien-
tist and he stooped down to feel the rock. It had the
slightly greasy texture of soapstone and was brilliant
amethyst in hue. He noted that the nails of his boots
bit into the rock as though it were chalk.

With a couple of blows of his axe, he cut loose a frag-
ment of the mysterious mineral and slipped it into the
pocket of his tunic.

Presently he heard the sound of running water and
found a small stream which cascaded down the wall and
ran away eastward. Ralph continued for some time in
the same direction, splashing through the running water
which was constantly augmented by additions from
above. When he reached a distance from his starting
point which he estimated at about half a mile, the shin-
ing walls began to draw closer and closer until he could
span them with outstretched hands. Now or never he
must find some means of exit from the abyss.

Closer and closer came the walls until he could barely
find room for his shoulders and then, just as he was
about to abandon hope and turn back, the right hand
wall took a sharp turn, the passage opened out and he
found himself standing at the bottom of a great circular
pit. The slippery walls rose sheer and glistened wetly
in the reflected light of day. A welter of spray filled
the huge pit, like a giant’s showerbath. His ears were
assailed by the muffled roar of the falling water.

He was standing in what is known to climbers as a
monlin, or mill, circular shaft in the ice, generally found
at the junction of several smaller crevasses. Such
moulins serve to carry the drainage from the surface of
the glacier to the bedrock below. Every mountaineer is
familiar with them, but Ralph was certainly the first
man to reach the bottom of one alive.

His amazement and admiration for the weird beauty
of his surroundings was suddenly arrested by the sight
of a low archway on the farther side of the moulin.
Semicircular in outline and perhaps five feet in height,
it cut into the ice like the entrance to a tunnel, and as
he peered through the swirling spray, he could see the
floor of the tunnel as a rushing torrent of w r ater.

In a moment he realized the origin of the strange
passage, and his heart leaped at the hope of escape
which it afforded. Wild and improbable in the extreme,
still it was a hope.

The archway, whose perfection and symmetry gave
it the appearance of man’s handiwork, was the result
of the friction of the water, in its mad race for the
open. In the tongue of the glacier, far down the val-
ley, was a great cave, from which emerged the river
which watered the forests of the lowlands. This tun-
nel was one of many such natural passages which con-
verged to the great cave and fed the river.

There was one chance in a thousand that the tunnel
might be passable throughout. Any one of a hundred
things might result in failure or even disaster, but they
must take that slim chance and pray the All Wise for
a successful outcome to the mad enterprise. Ralph

turned and hurried back along the amethyst pavement
to where he had left the girl.

As he drew near, he shouted to apprise her of his
coming. There was no reply. Fearful lest some fur-
ther accident might have befallen her, he broke into
a run.

Lotus was lying on the heap of snow, her fair head
pillowed on one outflung arm, her eyes closed. Her dis-
play of strength had been a flash in the pan, a brave
effort to deceive Ralph and encourage him in what she
believed to be a hopeless enterprise. The blow on her
head had been more serious than he realized, and no
sooner had he left her than she relapsed into
unconsciousness.

If they stayed there, there was no prospect save
death. First Lotus and then he would yield their lives
to the chilling breath of the ice. There was only one
thing to do and he did it.

Having wrapped her once more in his tunic, he picked
her up in his arms and started back along the berg-
schrund. When he reached the great shaft, he edged
his way around the wall, almost blinded and beaten
down by the pitiless force of the spray, until he could
enter the archway.

At first, the torrent in which he waded was barely
ankle deep, but his difficulties were increased by the
necessity of stooping to avoid striking his head against
the low roof.

He struggled on in the unearthly purple light which
filtered feebly through a hundred feet of ice. He could
barely discern the lovely face which glimmered white
and ghost-like against his breast. Presently the tunnel
grew higher and he was able to walk erect, but now
the torrent was knee deep and its force constantly
threatened to carry him from his footing.

Often he passed the openings of other tunnels, each
of which added its share of icy water to swell the tor-
rent. Now it reached his waist and he was obliged to
call forth his last reserve of strength to lift his burden
above the surface. The dim light was growing dimmer
and blending into crimson. Far above his head, the
world was glowing in the luminescence of sunset. Would
he ever see another sunrise or would night find two
frozen lifeless bodies?

His limbs were growing numb with cold and fatigue.
He passed another tunnel. The water was up to his
breast and he tried in vain to raise the girl’s inert body
above it.

The effort sapped the last trace of his strength. He
strove in vain against the raging torrent which beat
against his back. Suddenly his feet were carried from
under him. Convulsively he clasped the girl to him.
His senses were blotted out and the two bodies were
hurled fonvard beneath the glacier, clasped in the em-
brace of death.

CHAPTER VI.

A Cupid from Japan

N OW dimly, now clearly, like visions of verdant
valleys seen through rifts in a drifting sea of
cloud from a mountain top, consciousness came
back to Ralph Morton.

At first, it was hardly more than the smeared pictures
of dreamland, forming and fading like ripples on the
surface of a woodland pool, a pool reflecting a jumble
of blurred images, of which only one possessed sufficient
cohesion to enable it to persist for more than a moment
— the image of a mass of golden curls; a pair of eyes,
pansy-purple; a face, chiselled with the delicacy and
charm of an oriental carving in alabaster, but white.

456

AMAZING STORIES QUARTERLY

terribly white, whiter than any alabaster, save for
that trickle of crimson blood upon the brow.

Gradually the images grew clearer, less dreamlike,
until he became conscious of the awareness of life, of
self; a consciousness unmingled as yet with the desire
or even the power of physical movement. Now he real-
ized whence came that persistent image. Hesitatingly,
as one who experiments with a paralyzed muscle, his
lips formed themselves into a name: “Lotus!”

He remembered the fearsome descent into the depths
of the bergschrund, the staggering progress through
the icy tunnels, the hopeless struggle with the numbing
torrent. Was this Death? Were these images the
first sensations of a disembodied spirit? Surely no
flicker of life could have survived that raging torrent.

Tentatively he raised his eyelids. Still the image of
that fair face persisted, but now the alabaster was
tinted with rose. The high forehead, a little drawn as
though in anxiety was no longer marred with blood,
but the golden curls were bound with a white bandage.
The purple eyes brooded over him with the alert watch-
fulness of a mother.

“Lotus!”

This time his voice kept time with his lips. At the
word, the tense face relaxed. The eyes were irradiated
with a smile, whose joyousness overflowed those purple
pools and curved the lips into a scarlet bow.

“Ralph! Oh, Ralph! You’ve come back. Geoffrey!
Dr. Umetaro! Come quickly! He’s conscious !”

The full realization of life burst over him like a flood
of happiness. He lay on his sleeping couch on the roof-
space of the workshop. The yellow flexifer awnings
were drawn back revealing a cloudless summer sky. He
felt no pain, but his head seemed numb. Putting up his
hand, he encountered a mass of dressings.

“You mustn’t touch your head!” Lotus exclaimed, and
he thrilled to the touch of her hand as she laid it arrest-
ingly on his. “You were terribly hurt, Ralph, but you’ll
soon be better now.”

“What happened?” Ralph murmured. “How did we
escape from the glacier?”

“Dr. Umetaro saved us, as you saved me, Ralph!”
said the girl, her eyes glowing. “Your head must have
struck something. You’ve been unconscious for three
days. We — your friend Geoffrey has been almost crazy
for fear that you might not revive.”

Now there were two other faces smiling beside that
of Lotus Grenville the austere, yellow features of the
Doctor and the ugly, scarred face which was so dear to
him, the face of the blond Vulcan, Geoffrey Von Elmar.

“Lotus tells me that you saved both our lives, Doc-
tor,” said Ralph, smiling up at those smiling faces.
“Tell me what happened. I don’t remember anything
after I was swept off my feet by the torrent.”

“As your friend, I should be delighted to enlighten
you, Mr. Morton,” replied the Doctor, “but as your
physician I must prefer sleep and rest.”

“But I can’t rest!” exclaimed Ralph, starting up, only
to sink back with a groan of weakness. “Good heav-
ens ! We’re wasting time when I ought to be working
on the iron disease.”

“Don’t worry, my friend,” said the Doctor, sooth-
ingly. “Submit yourself to a slight treatment and then
perhaps you will feel better and we can talk about
these matters.”

The Doctor drew down the sheet from Ralph’s shoul-
ders and began a process which resembled but faintly
the rubbing and pounding which passed for massage in
past ages. The long, tapering fingers of the Japanese
flew over the skin of his subject, lingering here and
there with a light pressure on this or that nerve and
blood vessel.

Within a minute or two, Ralph’s eyes lost their fever-
ish excitement, then closed and presently his breathing
lengthened into the even respirations of natural slum-
ber. The Doctor ceased his manipulations and stood
watching the sleeper thoughtfully.

“It will be well that our friend should not worry about
anything for a while,” he said, turning to the others.
“The injured brain must not be submitted to any un-
necessary strain. Come, let us see!”

He bent over Ralph once more, his sensitive finger
tips seeking some hidden spot at the back of the neck.
Presently he straightened up with a nod of satisfaction.

“There! That is well,” he said. “Now he will rest. You,
Mr. Von Elmar, shall watch with our friend by night.
You, Lotus San, shall watch by day. And I, the little
doctor who begins to love you all, will watch both day
and night. With such care, our brave friend will be well
in a week. Then we will work!”

W HEN Ralph awakened, it was with a total ab-
sence of pain and worry. Somewhat to Geof-
frey’s surprise, he seemed content to lie and watch the
clouds drifting above the mountains or to talk quietly
with his friends. There was no further mention of the
great problem which had caused him so much agitation
upon his first return to consciousness. The hours just
drifted by in unruffled calm, utterly foreign to Ralph’s
usually dynamic temperament.

When Lotus Grenville brought him his meals or came
to her place at his side, the placid happiness of his
expression was accentuated and his eyes never left her
face until Geoffrey came to relieve her. From the first
it was obvious to Geoffrey and the Doctor that there was
a deep understanding growing up between these two,
one of those comradeships based upon sane affection and
perfect mutual understanding which were so common
between men and women in that happy age.

The week of convalescence, which Dr. Umetaro had
prescribed, drew to a close and one morning he came to
Ralph’s bedside with Lotus, just as Geoffrey was about
to relinquish his watch.

“How is our patient feeling today?” he greeted
smilingly.

“Splendid, thank you, Doctor,” Ralph replied cheer-
fully, “But I shall be jolly glad when I can dispense with
these bandages.”

“Then you shall be ‘jolly glad’ in a few minutes, my
friend,” said the Doctor. “I think that I have a sur-
prise in store for you.”

“A surprise?” puzzled Ralph. “What is that?”
“About these bandages of which you speak. May I
ask how you sustained the injury to your head which
made the bandages necessary.”

Lotus and Geoffrey looked up at the Japanese scientist
in astonishment. Was it possible that he suspected
Ralph of a serious injury to the brain; an injury which
might involve permanent loss of memory? Ralph, how-
ever, expressed no surprise, either in expression or
voice.

“Of course I can’t tell you that,” he said calmly. “I
have only been here for a week!”

“Just what do you mean by ‘here’?” queried the
doctor.

“In this life, of course,” was Ralph’s amazing reply.
Lotus opened her lips to speak, but the Doctor stopped
her with a smile and a gesture.

“You have no recollection of any life before this in
which you find yourself, Mr. Morton ?” he asked.

“Certainly not!” Ralph answered with a renewal of
that puzzled expression. “Why should I?”

“You are right. Why should you, indeed?” said the
doctor, his smile broadening into something very like
exultation. “And now I will remove your bandages.”

A MODERN PROMETHEUS 457

A few snips of the scissors and the white gauze fell
away. When they were loose, the doctor removed a
small, curiously shaped object from the back of Ralph’s
neck, where it had been held by the pressure of the
wrappings. Gently but firmly the scientist massaged the
flesh where this object had rested and then, holding out
his hand, assisted his patient to rise.

Ralph sat on the edge of the sleeping couch, an expres-
sion of utter bewilderment on his face. He looked from
one to another until his gaze came to rest on the girl,
lingering there for a dozen seconds. Then he passed
his hand uncertainly across his brow.

“Lotus — Lotus — I don’t understand — what has hap-
pened,” he stammered brokenly.

In a moment she was beside him, her arm around his
shoulder, her cheek against his.

“It’s all right, Ralph. I’m here. It’s all right!” she
crooned, and then, with a flash of fiery indignation to
the still smiling doctor. “What have you done. Oh!
What have you done to him?”

“Do not be alarmed, Lotus San,” said the Japanese,
reassuringly. “Our friend will soon find himself. Doubt-
less it is a shock to find that he was more than a week
old.”

Ralph raised his head with a little smile trembling on
his lips.

“It was a bit of shock, Doctor,” he said, “but it’s all
coming back now. The last thing I remember is your
saying, ‘Then we will work!”’

“I owe you a little explanation, my friends,” said the
doctor. “It has long been recognized that in many cases
of injury, particularly those which affect the brain,
recovery is much retarded by the tendency of the mind
to dwell upon previous e%'ents, or, as we should say, to
worry. For many years the medical section of the
Rebels has devoted much study to this problem, espe-
cially along the lines of discovering a harmless anaes-
thetic by means of which the patient could be kept
unconscious until he was completely recovered.

“We had worked and experimented for nearly fifty
years when, almost by accident, I found that by superfi-
cial pressure upon certain nerves-centres it was possible
to temporarily destroy the function of memory without
any injury to the patient and without the slightest
unpleasant after effects. I have only recently perfected
the technique of this treatment and our friend here is
the first case in which it has been practically applied.
You can understand, therefore, my gratification at the
entire success of my method. With the brain completely
free from all worry about the future and undisturbed by
any memory of the terrible experiences through which
he had passed, Mr. Morton has recovered from his in-
jury in a mere fraction of the time which would ordi-
narily be necessary.”

That evening Ralph found an opportunity to ask
Geoffrey a question which had been hovering in his mind
ever since he had recovered the full sense of his
faculties.

“Tell me something, Geoff,” he said. “I notice that
you and Dr. Umetaro talk quite freely before Lotus, of
our scientific work. Is it possible that she, too, is one
of these Rebels?”

“Not at all, old man,” replied his friend. “In fact she
has every reason to feel a strong antagonism to our
aims; stronger reasons than anyone in the 'world, except
perhaps one other. But she has other reasons which
incline her to regard our investigations in a favorable
light and I think I may say that the latter reasons far
outbalance the former !”

“Don’t be mysterious, Geoff!” exclaimed Ralph, “What
are these reasons and who is she that she should be so
antagonistic to us?”

“Those are questions which you had better ask her

yourself!” Geoffrey answered, his ugly face wrinkling
into smiles.

Ralph relapsed into thoughtful silence for a few
moments and then changed the subject.

“Tell me how we ever came out from under the glacier
alive,” he said. “I take it for granted that you or the
Doctor found us.”

“It was the Doctor,” Geoffrey answered. “You re-
member that when you started for the head of the
glacier and I left for a flight to Aklavik, he decided to
sit on the balcony and meditate. He seems to have tired
of that and decided to walk down to the tongue of the
glacier and examine the ice cave from which the river
flows.

“While he was standing there, he saw something blue
flash by in the torrent. Without the slightest idea of
what it might be, he ran down stream after it until he
came to that shallow— you know the place, Ralph. Well,
he waded in and dragged you both to the bank. Then he
started to work on you. Honestly, that man is a mar-
vel! I should have given you up for drowned, for
neither of you were breathing. He worked over you for
nearly two hours.

“Lotus was the first to recover, for she had suffered
no bodily injury, thanks to your protection. You seem
to have rammed your head against a rock and the best
he could do was to get your lungs working. When he
was satisfied that you were out of danger, he built a
big ‘smudge’ to attract my attention when I returned
from the north. Of course, he couldn’t leave either of
you, and he couldn’t carry you both. Well, I saw the
smudge and I guess that’s all.”

I T was only after considerable effort that Ralph suc-
ceeded in worming out of his friend the account of
his own share in the rescue; how he had been obliged
to land his plane on the flat ice a mile above the glacier
tongue ; how he had picked Ralph up in his mighty arms
like a baby and carried him over boulders and crevasses
to the plane and then hurried back to relieve the Doctor,
who was following more slowly with Lotus. And finally
how the two of them had watched over him day and
night, for nearly seventy hours, forgetting sleep and
even food until Lotus, refusing to stay on her couch,
brought them something and relieved them beside the
unconscious man, who, as though in response to the call
of her presence, regained his senses almost immediately.

The three friends plunged into their work with re-
newed energy while Lotus established herself in the
role of housekeeper, it being taken for granted that she
would not return to her lonely cabin on the meadows
beyond the snow pass. A week elapsed before Ralph
found the chance to ask her the questions which Geof-
frey had declined to answer.

Geoffrey and the Doctor had gone to Winnipeg to
obtain supplies and did not return until late. After din-
ner, the other two were sitting on the balcony when
Ralph broached the subject.

“You are interested in what we are trying to do, are
you not, Lotus?” he said,

“Yes, very much,” she answered, simply.

“And you sympathize?” he asked.

“More than I can tell you, Ralph.”

“That seems strange when the world is against us.
Geoff tells me that there is some special reason why
you should be bitterly opposed to our investigations and
another reason why you favor them. He was very
mysterious about it. Will you explain what he meant?”
“It’s nothing very mysterious, Ralph. I am an orphan
and I live with my uncle, who is also my guardian. He
is Clifford Weatherby.”

“Clifford Weatherby — the financier!” Ralph ex-
claimed.

458

AMAZING STORIES QUARTERLY

A great light illuminated his mind. What wonder if
the niece of Weatherby, the great Ironmaster, should
shrink from the men who were working in opposition to
her uncle, who stood to gain untold wealth from the
failure of their research !

“I understand, Lotus,” he said, at last,

‘‘Oh ! But you don’t, Ralph,” she cried. “My uncle is
a throw-back. He seems to have inherited his instincts
from some ancestor in the twentieth century. He loves
his wealth for the mere joy of possession and for the
power it may give him over other men. He hates to see
everybody happy and comfortable as they are today.
He wants to feel that people owe their happiness and
comfort to him, and are his slaves as the poor folk were
slaves of the rich in the old, bad days. He rejoiced at
the news of this terrible disease which is destroying the
iron ore, because he believed that it would restore the
power of wealth. He tried to persuade the other iron-
masters to join him in a — a monopoly, I think they
called it, so that people would have to pay enormous
prices for the necessities of life, but they wouldn’t
hear him.”

“Then you don’t fall in with your uncle’s views?”
Ralph asked.

“I hate them!” she cried, her eyes flashing in the
starlight. “Oh! Ralph, surely the All Wise would not
permit such a horrible thing !”

Ralph’s hand reached out and found hers in a clasp
of understanding.

“But what about my other question, Lotus?” he said,
his voice trembling a little. “Geoff says that you have
some special reason for approving of our experiments.
What is that?”

“I — I can’t tell you,” she said, turning towards him
to meet his eyes, her own shining like sapphires. “You
will have to guess that for yourself, Ralph.”

Ralph possessed himself of her other hand.

“Shall I answer my own question by asking you
another?” he smiled.

She nodded, not trusting herself to speak.

“Shall we be companions, Lotus? 1 love you.”

“Your question answers your question, Ralph,” she
said tenderly. “I love you too, my dearest, and I will
be your companion for all our lives,” and she raised
her face to his for their first kiss.

CHAPTER VII.

The Dark Star

A FTER Ralph’s recovery, the three men threw
themselves into their work with redoubled energy.
u A new spirit seemed to penneate the little com-
munity with the coming of Lotus Grenville. Failure —
and failure was all they had to show for their efforts —
no longer brought discouragement. Ralph and Lotus
were happy in their new-found love and the joyous pros-
pect of life-long companionship which was to be theirs.
Geoffrey was happy in the happiness of his friends,
although Ralph, to whom Geoff’s emotions were an open
book, thought that at times he could detect a certain
wistful sadness in the latter’s expression as he contem-
plated the perfect concord which marked the relation-
ship of the lovers.

Dr. Umetaro showed his racial traits by exhibiting
little emotion, either of hope or discouragement, assum-
ing with calm fatalism that if they were destined to
succeed they i would succeed, and if not — well, they
would fail!

News from the outside world reached them by way
of the telenewspapers. Under the direct supervision of
John Ballantyne and Hector Shawn of the Three, every
scrap of untainted ore was being removed from the

mines in frantic haste. Thousands of gigantic freight
planes were rushing the ore southward to the Antarctic,
to be piled in huge dumps on the eternal ice fields where
it would be safe from the ravages of the mysterious
disease.

So rapid was the progress of the disease that the
total amount of ore saved was pitifully small; barely
enough to feed the ferroverters which supplied the
world with necessities, for a period of five years. In
that short space of time the people would have to re-
model their entire economic system and themselves with
it. In a world unaccustomed to changes of any sort for
two hundred years, and conservative to a degree which
would have been unthinkable in the twentieth century,
the task of effecting this transformation in so short a
time appeared almost hopeless.

True, there was no danger of starvation, but it
should be remembered that every age acquires a set of
habits determined by its environments, and that any-
thing which disturbs these habits produces an effect out
of all proportion to their intrinsic importance. The
lack of telephone and electric lights meant nothing to
the ancient Romans, who had never been accustomed
to these conveniences. On the other hand, a total fail-
ure of the lighting and communication systems in the
days of President Hoover and King George V. would
have meant economic disruption and perhaps anarchy.

It will be easily understood, therefore, with what dis-
may the Board of Control regarded the destruction of
the iron mines, the more so that many of the materials
which had been supplanted by transmuted iron, could
not be returned to production in less than forty or fifty
years, if at all. Wood, for example, had not been used
in manufacturing or building for two centuries. With
the population spread over the whole habitable world,
trees were grown solely for their sesthetic appeal. Ex-
cept for the high mountain regions, great forests were
things of the past.

Combine these facts with the tremendous difficulty
of developing machinery for cutting and working lum-
ber, to say nothing of training the workers, and the
immensity of the problem can be seen. Multiply this
difficulty a hundredfold to cover all the ramifications
of the arts which allotropic iron had supplanted — is it
any wonder that the Board of Control shrank from its
task of reorganization?

After his recovery, Ralph pored over the filed copies
of the New York Tele-Post for some account of Clifford
Weatherby. A few days after his dramatic escape from
the Ironmasters’ Convention, he had gone to Santa
Lucia and tendered a public apology to the Three for his
defection, and stated that the ore in the mines which he
controlled had been entirely destroyed by the disease.
The Three banished him for a year to his Florida home
and issued a proclamation that no citizen was to hold
communication with him during that period. Weather-
by accepted the punishment with humility and left
Santa Lucia the same day. He had not been heard of
since.

Lotus Grenville was much distressed by the news.

“I can’t sympathize with my uncle’s views,” she said
to Ralph, “but now that he is in trouble I feel that he
needs me. Ought I not go back to him?”

“You cannot do that, dearest, without incurring the
displeasure of the Three,” Ralph reminded her.

“I have a feeling that there is more in this than
appears on the surface,” said Geoffrey, musingly.
“From what you have said, Lotus, and from what Ralph
observed in New York, Clifford Weatherby is not the
type of man to submit to correction tamely. It seems
hardly possible that the ore in the Florida mines was
completely destroyed when uninjured ore remains near
the surface everywhere else. I can’t help thinking that

A MODERN PROMETHEUS

459

Weatherby has some plan up his sleeve. What if he
has saved a large quantity of ore and intends to wait
until the ore in Antarctica is consumed before putting
it on the market?”

“What good would that do him?” Lotus asked.

“Don’t you see that your uncle is crazy for power?”
explained Geoffrey. “With sole control of the last rem-
nant of ore in his hands, he could sate his appetite for
power to the limit.”

T HIS conversation took place one day on the balcony
where the four friends always gathered for an
hour’s relaxation after luncheon. The Doctor, who had
taken no part in the discussion up to this point, came
out of a reverie and brought down his clenched fist on
the arm of his chair with such unusual violence that
the others started.

“Ah! The fools! The blind fools!” he exclaimed.
“They have strangled the spirit of Science and now, in
their travail, they cry out for help which is not forth-
coming! There is iron enough to supply the world
for a thousand centuries at our very threshold, and we
cannot reach it. Who knows! Perhaps if science
had been allowed to continue her progress unfettered
in the past, she might be able to provide the means
whereby this mine of untold wealth could be tapped?”
“Iron for a thousand centuries?” cried Ralph. “Why
Doctor, what can you mean? Where is this mine of
wealth?”

“Is it possible that you do not know of the Dark
Star?” demanded the Japanese.

“The Dark Star?” repeated Ralph. “Never heard
of it.”

The others were equally mystified.

“Three persons of more than average education and
intelligence,” exclaimed the Doctor, “in the Age of
Social Enlightenment, who have never heard of the
greatest astronomical event in the history of mankind !
Know, my friends, that on the eighteenth day of Sol in
the year 2123, the Earth acquired a new satellite, A
dark sphere, rushing through space, came within
the range of the earth’s gravitational attraction.
Snatched from its orbit by the pull of the superior
body, this Dark Star has continued to circle around us
ever since and will continue to do so through all
Eternity — unless ”

“Unless what, Doctor?” asked Ralph, as the speaker
paused.

“Unless the All Wise has decreed another fate for
it!”

“Explain! Explain!” cried three voices in chorus.
“You must understand,” said the Doctor, “that this
Dark Star is a spherical mass about fifty miles in
diameter, which is believed to be the remnant or nu-
cleus of some planet belonging to a solar system im-
mensely distant from our own. We can only guess at
the nature of the cataclysm which caused the disrup-
tion of the original planet. Possibly it was a collision
with another body, or more likely, internal strains due
to cooling combined with a tidal effect caused by proxi-
mity to another sphere.

“Whatever may have been the cause, the heavy
central nucleus was hurled out of its parent system into
open space. All this occurred thousands or even mil-
lions of years ago. The latter estimate is the more
probable since the disruption must have been accom-
panied by a great display of light which would have
been visible from the earth. In other words, had the
event taken place in historical times, we should have
noted the appearance of a ‘temporary star’ or Nova.”
“Have there not been many such Novse, Doctor?”
Geoffrey interrogated. “Why may not the Dark Star
be the remains of one of these?”

“It is a possibility, of course,” replied the Japanese,
“but there is evidence, chiefly spectroscopic, which
throws doubt upon the theory. However that may be,
the journey of the Dark Star through space ended with
its capture by our earth. The event was accompanied
by violent storms, tidal waves and earthquakes; the
protests of Mother Earth at being forced to adopt the
child of another parent. Even in those days, Science
had fallen so low that few people made any attempt to
trace the source of these catastrophes. The Dark Star
became the sister of our Moon ; the daughter of a planet
bearing upon her bosom nearly two billion human
beings, yet of all those teeming myriads, only one man
was aware of what had taken place.”

“But surely, Doctor, people would have seen the
Star,” interposed Lotus. “You speak of the Dark Star
as a sister to the Moon, but we do not see two moons
today.”

“You forget,” smiled Ralph. “Dr. Umetaro told us
that the Dark Star is only fifty miles in diameter. The
Moon is over two thousand.”

“Your explanation, while plausible, is not the cor-
rect one, Mr. Morton,” stated the Doctor, “as you will
realize when I have told you the elements of the Dark
Star’s orbit. As I have mentioned, the Star is about
fifty miles in diameter. It follows an almost circular
path and its mean distance from the surface of the
earth is just over four thousand miles. Obeying the
universal law of gravitation, it completes a revolution
in approximately four hours. It travels, therefore, at a
speed of fourteen miles per minute or about four
hundred yards per second.”

“Forgive me for interrupting you, Doctor,” cut in
Geoffrey, who had been scribbling on his tablets, “but
according to Kepler’s law, a satellite having a period of
four hours would be eight thousand miles from the
earth, not four thousand.”

“You forget that so far as the effect of gravitation
is concerned, the earth acts as though its entire mass
were concentrated at its centre. The Dark Star is
eight thousand miles from the centre of the earth and
therefore four thousand from the surface.”

“Sorry, Doctor!” apologized Geoffrey. “I ought to
have known that. You were about to tell us why the
Dark Star is not generally seen.”

“First let me point out that its invisibility is not
due to its small size. On account of its proximity, the
Dark Star, when in the zenith, has an appai’ent area
two and a half times as great as the moon, but, also, on
account of its nearness, it appears only half the area
of the moon when at the horizon. The reason for this
will be obvious if you think that when the star is
overhead we are looking radially across its orbit, a
distance of four thousand miles, but when it is near
the horizon, we look along the hypotenuse of a
triangle of which the shorter leg is four thousand miles
and the longer leg eight thousand miles. Is that clear?”

HE others nodded and the Doctor continued.

“We see then, that the size of the Star would
command immediate attention if it possessed the lustre
of the moon. But this is not the case. The Star is
actually dark. Its surface possesses some peculiar
quality so that, instead of reflecting the sun’s rays, it
absorbs them like a piece of black ferrovel. Therefore
it is invisible.”

“Such a body as you describe would be invisible in
one sense,” commented the practical Geoffrey, “but in
another sense it would be very visible indeed. It’s a
matter of background. The Dark Star would be seen
against the background of the sky, just as the black
embroidery on the tunic Lotus is wearing, stands out
against the background of blue ferrovel.”

460

AMAZING STORIES QUARTERLY

“Quite so!” agreed the Doctor, nodding. “That is
exactly the way the Dark Star is visible in the
heavens.”

“Well, but Doctor,” protested Geoffrey, “surely you
don’t mean to say that there has been a black hole in
the sky, three times the area of the moon, _ for nearly
a hundred years, and that during that time "no one has
seen it!”

“Yet that is just what I do mean,” replied the
Japanese, calmly.

“I know!” cried Lotus, excitedly. “The Dark Star
is never above the horizon in the daytime. That’s why
we don’t see a black hole in the blue sky !”

“Come, come, Lotus San!” cried the Doctor, his black
eyes sparkling with fun. “That bit of logic is hardly
worthy of you. Have I not told you that the Dark
Star’s period of revolution is four hours? Think for
a minute. If the moon were dark, should we know of
its existence? When the moon is ‘new’ and turns its
dark side towards the earth, is it visible in the day-
time ? Remember that the blue dome we call the sky is
an illusion due to the scattering of the sun’s rays as
they pass through our atmosphere. In order for a
body to appear as a black hole in the blue sky, it must
be in our atmosphere, not outside it.”

It was Geoffrey again whose keenly analytical mind
picked out the critical point in the Doctor’s disserta-
tion.

“I take it that the Dark Star is visible at night in so
far as it hides the constellations over which its passes,”
he observed.

“You are right, Mr. Von Elmar,” replied the Doctor,
“only it is hardly accurate to speak of the Dark Star
hiding whole constellations. An occasional star here
and there amongst those which are visible with the
naked eye, is occulted or eclipsed by the passage of our
little satellite. The world, having lost all interest in
astronomy as a science, looks up to the starry heavens
and loves them for their beauty and emotional appeal,
but who would notice the periodical absence of one or
two stars amongst so many hundreds? Only the scant
dozen astronomers who are on the rolls of the Rebels,
have gazed through their telescopes and seen the Dark
Star in its entirety. It happens also, that the orbit of
the Star is almost exactly parallel to the axis of the
earth, so that a large part of its path is over the north
and south Polar regions, which reduces considerably its
chance of being noticed.”

Ralph, his imagination and love of the romantic past
stirred by the Doctor’s description, harked back to
something that the Japanese had said.

“And you say that out of all mankind, just one saw
the advent of our new satellite?” he wondered.

“The word I used was ‘aware,’ not ‘saw.’ I think,”
corrected the other. “The story of how that humble
servant of science watched the coming of the Dark
Star is one of the little romances which brighten the
tedium of our work. Deep down in a cellar, where, for
fear of the criticisms of his neighbors, he had built a
little workshop, William Blake was absorbed in study-
ing the magnetic properties of certain alloys of iron
and chromium. He had constructed a magnetized
needle upon a delicate pivot, similar to the compasses
which were used on ships many years ago. The point
of the needle hung above a finely divided scale, above
which was a microscope for the purpose of observing the
slightest movement of the needle due to the proximity
of the metal under test.

“Blake had adjusted the scale so that the needle
pointed exactly at zero. Just then, his companion, who
shared his ambitions of course, called him to
luncheon. An hour later he returned to his workshop
and applied his eye to the microscope. He was some-

what surprised to find that the needle had moved away
from the zero point.

“Supposing that he had made an error, Blake read-
justed the scale and turned his attention to preparing a
sample of the test metal. When it was ready, he looked
through the microscope again before beginning the ex-
periment. To his great astonishment, the needle had
moved off the zero point once more. After that the
chromium alloy was forgotten. For hours Blake sat,
with his eye at the microscope, watching the slow
movement of the needle. That infinitely slow, creeping
movement was the Dark Star’s handwriting; the mes-
sage of its advent into the sphere of earthly attraction.

“Blake had no idea of the cause of the phenomenon
he had discovered. Indeed, it was several years be-
fore the true explanation was found. Several Rebel
scientists, to whom Blake confided his discovery, com-
bined to watch the movement of the compass needle.
They noted that the needle swung in one direction for
sixty-one minutes, then slowly returned to normal in
sixty-one minutes more. The succeeding two hours
was marked by a similar deflection in the opposite di-
rection. Meanwhile an astronomer in the Andes had
noted the presence of our new satellite. The mysterious
excursions of the compass needle were immediately ex-
plained. It was being attracted by the Dark Star as
that body swung around in its new orbit.”

“Doctor, I’m very ignorant of scientific matters,”
Lotus said, “but I thought that the compass needle was
only deflected by iron.”

“Did I not tell you, Lotus San, that a mine of
wealth lay at our threshold if we could but reach it?
The Dark Star is the central nucleus of a shattered
planet. It is a globe of solid iron fifty miles in
diameter. Sixty-five thousand cubic miles of iron,
weighing in the neighborhood of two million billion
tons, poised in the heavens no further away than the
distance from Florida to Vancouver. Was I wrong
w'hen I said that there was iron enough to feed our
ferroverter for a thousand centuries lying on our very
doorstep?”

There was a long silence when Dr. Umetaro con-
cluded his explanation; not the respectful silence of an
audience at the end of a lecture, but the tense, stifled
pause which follows a tremendous and unexpected ex-
plosion. The conception of that globe of iron pursuing
its unchanging course around the earth was too
astounding to be grasped in a moment. Iron was the
backbone of civilization in the Age of Social Enlight-
enment. A strange disease had sapped the life of that
backbone, leaving civilization supine and helpless.
There, in space at the threshold of the world, as the
Doctor had said, was a new backbone, all ready for
use and yet unreachable.

G EOFFREY and Lotus broke silence simultaneously.

The narrow space which separated the earth from
her new satellite must be bridged. The Dark Star must
be reached by space fliers, and colonies established upon
its surface to mine this boundless wealth. The Rebels
must drop their attempts to cure the disease which was
destroying the terrestrial mines and concentrate upon
the task of designing the fliers which would open up
this new source of supply.

These and a dozen other impracticable suggestions
came crowding one another in breathless excitement
from Lotus and Geoffrey. Dr. Umetaro waited until
they had finished, smiling tolerantly, with the expres-
sion of one who listens to the babbling of children.

“Is that all, my friends?” he asked, quizzically.
“Then I fear that I must crush your glowing hopes to
earth. The Dark Star is as inaccessible to us as though
it were still reposing in the womb of its parent planet,

A MODERN PROMETHEUS

461

billions of miles away. Let us admit that we can in-
vent and build the necessary space fliers, of which I am
very doubtful. How do you propose to establish colo-
nies and carry on mining operations upon the surface
of a body where gravity is less than a millionth as
great as upon the earth? Place the average man upon
out tiny satellite and he would weigh about one-fiftieth
of a grain. Even you, Mr. Von Elmar, would have
difficulty in maintaining your footing and handling
a Vrilol Drill with a body weighing less than one of
Lotus San’s hairs!

“Another thing,” continued the Doctor. “The Dark
Star possesses no atmosphere. I will forestall your pro-
test that it would be an easy matter to make our own
air or carry it with us, by reminding you that the
earth’s atmosphere has a secondary function almost as
important as that of maintaining oxygen in the blood.
It is a shield and buttress against the artillery of
heaven. But for the kindly protection of our com-
paratively dense atmosphere, few if any of us -would
live out our days, for we should succumb to the bom-
bardment of myriads of meteorites which are now con-
sumed by the friction of the air and become dust, long
before they can reach our devoted heads !

“Upon the Dark Star, however, we should have no
such protection and even if all other difficulties were
overcome, the settlements you propose would neces-
sarily be attended by enormous loss of life. Mining iron
on the Dark Star would be like cultivating a piece of
land while a hundred machine guns such as we read of
in the last great war, sprayed a hail of death across
the fields! Am I not right, Mr. Morton?” concluded the
Doctor, turning to Ralph.

It was not until then that the others realized that
Ralph had taken no part whatever in the burst of
excited comment which had greeted Dr. Umetaro’s
account of the Dark Star. In fact, he seemed to have
been paying little or no attention to the conversation.
He lay back in his chair, idly fingering the fringe of
his tunic, as though the discussion were something in
which he had not the remotest interest.

In spite of the vacancy of Ralph’s expression,
Geoffrey seemed to sense a keen alertness in the other’s
eyes, as if his attention, instead of being given to the
subject in hand, were concentrated upon something of
which the rest were not aware. His reply to the
Doctor’s query confirmed Geoffrey in his impression.

“Yes, certainly, Doctor!” Ralph exclaimed. “I quite
agree with you. It is time we returned to the work-
shop.”

“Why, Ralph!” cried Lotus, in mock indignation. “I
don’t believe you have heard a word of what we have
been talking about!”

“I’m afraid I have been thinking about something
else, my Flower,” rejoined Ralph, rising and allowing
his hand to linger tenderly on the golden head. “Come,
let us get to work.”

CHAPTER VIII

Clifford Weatherby Shows His Teeth

G EOFFREY was not surprised when, a little while
after the conversation which had been recounted,
Ralph found an excuse to call him into the study
and, having closed the door, motioned him to be seated.

“You must have thought me very discourteous, Geoff,”
he said, “to be day-dreaming while the Doctor was giv-
ing his little lecture on the Dark Star. The fact is that
I got to thinking about Clifford Weatherby, and your
remark that he was not the type of a man to submit
to punishment tamely. A man like Weatherby would
stop at nothing to accomplish his aims. It is even pos-

sible that he knows a lot more about the Rebels than
we imagine. He would conceal any knowledge he may
possess because it is his nature to be secretive, and also
because he would foresee the likelihood of using the
accumulated learning of the Rebels to aid him in his
bid for power.”

Geoffrey looked at his friend in unconcealed doubt.

“I can hardly see your reasoning, Ralph,” he said.
“Weatherby is just one man, after all; a man who is
at present in banishment and under the displeasure of
the Three. What can he hope to do?”

“We can’t know what assistance he may have,
Geoff,” Ralph exclaimed, beginning to pace the floor.
“It takes more than two centuries to change the nature
of the human race. There will be throw-backs, as
Lotus calls them, for many more generations ; men and
women whose minds and methods of thinking will hark
back to past ages. A band of such Atavars, under the
leadership of an unscrupulous man like Weatherby,
might do untold harm before they could be got under
control. Who knows but what he is aware of even our
small activities and is planning to destroy us at this
very moment?”

“Really, old fellow, I think that you’re allowing your
imagination to run away with you?” Geoffrey laughed,
“This valley is the most isolated spot on the North
American continent. Why, we’ve never seen a single
human being except Lotus, in all the years we have
been here.”

“If that is true, Geoffrey,” said his friend, slowly,
“will you tell me why I watched a man signalling by
means of a mirror, during the w r hole time we were
sitting on the balcony?”

“A man! Where?” exclaimed Geoffrey, starting to
his feet.

“At the top of the cliffs on the opposite side of the
valley,” replied his friend, calmly.

Geoffrey was dumfounded. He and Ralph had, of
course, realized that by engaging in scientific research
■work they were laying themselves open to severe cen-
sure not alone by the Three, who, after all, were only
the chosen representatives of the people, but by the
whole human race. Geoffrey understood this perfectly,
but he felt so secure in the isolation of the aerial work-
shop that it never entered his mind that anyone would
visit them with evil intentions.

“Are you quite sure, Ralph?” he asked, at last.
“Might not the signals you saw have been sunlight re-
flected from a quartz crystal or a piece of mica?”

“I thought of that explanation,” replied his friend,
“but I am quite confident that the flashes were caused
by human agency. It is true that they did not conform
to any code with which I am familiar, but they were
unquestionably signals of some sort.”

“But to whom would he be signalling?”

“Presumably to some person on the mountain side
above us. Geoffrey, I tell you that I have a feeling
which amounts almost to certainty, that Clifford Weath-
erby knows of our work. Don’t ask me what makes me
so sure of this, for I can’t tell you.”

Geoffrey spoke hesitatingly with his eyes turned
away :

“Could — could it possibly be ”

“Be careful, Geoff!” snapped Ralph, his eyes flashing
dangerously. “Do not say anything you may be sorry,
for.”

“Beg pardon, old man,” rejoined Geoffrey, frankly,
“I spoke without thinking. But what about the Doctor.
After all, we only have his word for this story about
the Rebels. What if he is a spy of Weatherby’s ! I hate
to think such a thing is possible, but we must consider
every possibility.”

“You can bar Dr. Umetaro,” said Ralph confidently.

462

AMAZING STORIES QUARTERLY

“If he were an agent of Weatherby’s, he would have let
me drown when he saw me in the river and then dealt
with you at his leisure. Instead of which, he saved my
life. No, I can swear the Doctor is as true as ferrolith.”

“Then what other suggestion can you make?” asked
Geoffrey.

“None,” answered Ralph. “But I can tell you one
thing, Geoff. I’m going over to the other side of the
valley tonight and find out what caused those signals.”

“Let me go, Ralph,” begged the other. “I’m a bigger
man than you, and if there is going to be any trouble,
I can probably take care of it all right. In any case,
you are far more important to this enterprise than I.
If I don’t come back, you three can skip out and find
another place to work.”

“You could do no good by going,” his friend said with
finality. “You didn’t see the flashes and it’s too dark
for me to point out the place. Even if I could, you
would never get up the cliffs. You’re a Hercules of
strength, Geoff, but you are about as much use on a bit
of rock climbing as an elephant, if you’ll forgive my
saying so!”

“Then let me come with you,” Geoffrey insisted.
“With a rope ”

“I’ll go by myself!” Ralph stated emphatically. “I
know those cliffs by heart. I can get up there without
making a sound and come back without being seen.”

Geoffrey knew his friend too well to attempt any
further persuasion, but it was with a heavy heart that
he saw his friend drop over the edge of the balcony
at midnight and disappear in the gloom. Lotus and the
Doctor were sleeping and knew nothing of the pro-
posed expedition.

“Don’t worry, old man,” were Ralph’s last words.
“I shall come back all right. If I don’t ”

The rest of his thought was unspoken, but Geoffrey
understood and accepted the trust.

In half an hour Ralph set foot on the ice. The
sheer cliffs below the workshop had presented no more
difficulty in the darkness than they would have done
in broad day. Every familiar support and hold fell into
place beneath his feet and hands, as though he were an
'automaton.

The crossing of the glacier was not so simple. He
knew, of course, the general location of the crevasses
and had no particular wish to renew his acquaintance
with the icy depths which had so nearly proved his
death two weeks before. Slowly and cautiously he felt
his way, probing every step ahead with his ice-axe.
Once, in crossing a snow-bridge, a leg plunged through
to the hip, but he saved himself by falling forward and
crawling across on his face.

A T LAST, with a sigh of relief, he saw the cliffs of
. the farther side loom up through the blackness
and in a few moments his hands touched rock.

A brief inspection told him that he had steered his
course well. He stood at the bottom of a narrow ridge
which projected from the otherwise sheer face. By
daylight he might have made his way up the cliffs at
any one of a dozen places, but in the darkness his only
hope was to follow the ridge. It was tremendously
steep, but it constituted a guiding line from which he
could hardly deviate, like the thread by which Theseus
made his escape from the den of the -Minotaur.

Ralph slipped off the heavily nailed sandals in which
he had made the crossing of the slippery ice and started
up the rock in his naked feet. This he could do with
confidence and safety, for continual contact with the
mountains had hardened the soles to a degree which was
unusual, even in those days when men and women of all
ages went barefoot as much as conditions would permit.
His progress up the ridge was almost as rapid as the

descent of the cliff below the workshop. He could not
possibly mistake his route, with the edge of the ridge
to guide him. Once or twice the rocks shot up vertically
for a hundred feet, but always there were good holds by
which he overcame the difficulty.

At last he felt the angle decreasing and in an hour
from the time he had left the glacier, he stood on the
rim of the cliff, two thousand feet above it.

What next? For a moment the thought flashed
through his mind that the most sensible thing to do was
to return the way he had come and go to bed! Per-
haps Geoffrey was right and the idea of some malignant
personality crouching on the cliffs was just a figment of
the imagination. After all, what justification had he
for believing anything of the sort? A flickering light
which might be signals but was probably the reflection
of the sun on the facets of a rock crystal. He felt a
natural antagonism to Clifford Weatherby, who might,
for all his strange views, be a very estimable old man.
On these impressions, hazy and indefinite at the best, his
mind had built up a structure which would probably
prove to be utterly without foundation. Mankind had
not yet reached the stage of universal brotherly love
which the religionists of the twentieth century had
anticipated, but the whole idea of personal violence, as
a means of redressing wrongs, had become foreign to
man’s thoughts with the coming of the Age of Social
Enlightenment.

It was little wonder that Ralph almost turned back
from what, he w 7 as convinced, would prove a wild goose
chase !

In spite of all these very rational arguments, turning
back was one thing Ralph had no intention of doing.
He would return to the workshop wffien he had found the
cause of those flashes — not before.

T HAT afternoon he had carefully noted the spot at
which the supposed signals originated, so now he
turned to the right and began to work his way eastward
along the rim of the cliffs. A dense forest of spruce
covered the slopes above him, the trees extending to the
extreme edge. The ground was carpeted with soft moss,
on which his bare feet made no sound. Here and there,
tiny streams from the melting snow-fields far above,
trickled through the moss and cascaded into space.

As he crept with infinite caution from tree to tree,
his lips curled into a smile of self-ridicule at the
thought that he was playing a child’s game ; was prac-
ticing the long forgotten art of scouting, of stealing un-
heard upon an unsuspecting enemy.

He had progressed in this way a distance of about a
mile when his outstretched hand came into contact with
cold metal! The shock of finding that his game was
likely to prove reality was so sudden that he almost
gave voice to an exclamation. Fortunately he was able
to control the impulse. Dropping to his knees, he be-
gan to explore by the sense of touch, the object he had
encountered.

It was a tapering metal tube, five feet long and vary-
ing from one to six inches in diameter. The ends were
closed by curved, polished discs and the whole thing
was mounted on a light metal tripod. A telescope!
Instantly he realized the cause of the signals. Some-
one had been "watching the workshop through this tele-
scope. The glitter of the sunlight upon the object glass,
which might have escaped notice had it been motion-
less, was broken up into irregular flashes by the in-
voluntary tremor of the watcher’s head; a vibration
which was communicated to the eyepiece.

The signals were explained, but what of the motive?
In vain Ralph puzzled his brain. Certainly the secret
spy could not be an agent of the Board of Control. It
was not the custom of the Three to spy upon the people.

A MODERN PROMETHEUS

463

If Hector Shawn had reason to believe that there were
men carrying on the forbidden practice of scientific re-
search, he or one of the others would have come to them
openly and have reasoned with them. If reasoning
proved to be of no avail, punishment would be swift
and sure, “for the good of the Race.”

No, the only answer to the problem was Clifford
Weatherby. He alone had anything to gain by secrecy.

Ralph’s eyes had to some extent grown accustomed
to the darkness. Beside the tripod he could make out
the shape of what appeared to be a small square box,
resting on the ground. Closer inspection revealed the
dials and Radiferr rods of a portable radio transmitter.
The spy was not alone, then ! He was in communication
with some person at a distance, someone to whom he
sent reports of what he observed.

Ralph stretched out his hand to submit the radio
transmitter to a closer examination, but he never
reached it. His keen ears detected a movement behind
him. Before he could straighten up, a band of steel
seemed to encircle his neck and another band was flung
around his body, binding his arms to his sides.

Slowly but surely his unseen assailant was choking
the breath from his lungs, and at the same time, drag-
ging him towards the rim. Again and again he flung
every ounce of the strength of his splendid muscles
into the effort to break the grip of those crushing
bands. His bare feet clutched and writhed in the fran-
tic hope of finding some grip in the yielding moss. .

Now his horror-stricken eyes could look down into
the gulf. The moon, in its last quarter, was beginning
to rise above the cliffs. By its faint light he could see
the silver ribbon of the glacier, thousands of feet below.
So far away it seemed and yet he knew that before his
heart could beat a score of times, he would be lying on
that silver ribbon crushed into a nauseating, shapeless
mass.

He was aware of a low humming sound. It was like
a Vrilol motor, but he knew, of course, that it was the
roar of the blood in his ears. The crushing pressure
of the mighty arms slackened, the resistless urge
towards the abyss ceased, but he no longer possessed
either the strength or the will to make another bid for
freedom. This was the end. A moment more and he
would be snatched up and flung headlong into space.

Suddenly, so suddenly that in falling he almost rolled
over the edge of the cliffs, Ralph was released. He
turned to see a squat, dark form bounding like an
antelope up the slope. In a moment it had disappeared.
Then, from the same direction, came a shrill cry of fear,
followed by a stifled groan of agony and a sound as
of some heavy body crashing through the underbrush.
Before Ralph could gather up his shaken nerves or
formulate any plan to cope with this new enemy, a tall
figure came striding through the trees and Geoffrey
Von Elmar stood before him. His mighty arms were
raised above his head. In one hand he held the ankle,
in the other, the hair of a struggling negro, who beat
upon Geoffrey’s head and face with his clenched fists.

“Here’s your little playmate, Ralph,” said Geoffrey,
paying no more attention to the rain of blows than if
they had been snowflakes: “Shall I throw him over?”

“Geoff!” stammered Ralph. “What are you doing
here? How did you find me?”

“Followed you in the plane,” his friend replied. “It’s
a wonder you didn’t hear the motor. Got an awful shock
when you stuck your leg into the crevasse. I thought
you were a goner! Keep still, you beast!” he growled
to the negro, shaking him as a Great Dane might shake
a toy spaniel.

“You were just in time, Geoff,” said Ralph. “An-
other ten seconds and I shouldn’t have been here. But
how could you follow me in the darkness?”

“Remember that infra-red ray outfit we rigged up last
year? I fixed that in the floor of the plane this evening.
It was as good as a searchlight. I could watch you all
the time while the rays would, of course, be invisible to
anyone not having the proper viewing screen. Sorry I
didn’t get here sooner, but I couldn’t find a landing
place. Now then, I’ll get rid of this brute and we’ll go
home.” The giant took a step towards the edge of the
cliff, while the negro burst out into shrieks and prayers
for mercy.

“Stop, Geoff!” interposed Ralph. “This fellow may
be useful. If you throw him over the cliff, we shall be
as much in the dark as ever. Bring him to the work-
shop and we’ll question him. Don’t forget, he’s only
a tool in the hands of others.”

“All right, Ralph. Have it your own way, though I
hate to forego the pleasure of seeing this insect turn-
ing head over heels in the air.” And Geoffrey, who
would not have dreamed of treading upon an ant in-
tentionally, made a motion with his arms which brought
forth a new burst of screams from the helpless negro.

T HEY made their way to the plane, Ralph leading
the way with a torch, there being no longer any
need for concealment. They tied the negro hand and
foot with a fibroferr climbing rope and dumped him un-
ceremoniously into the back seat.

Geoffrey started the motor and they soared out over
the glacier. Dropping straight down to the foot of the
ridge, they retrieved Ralph’s sandals and tunic. Five
minutes later the plane dropped softly into its cradle
at the workshop.

“One sound from you, you pup, and I’ll drop you
over the balcony!” threatened Geoffrey as he lifted the
bound figure out of the back seat. “There’s no use of
alarming the others, Ralph,” he explained. “We’ll take
this specimen into the laboratory and analyze it at our
leisure.”

Ralph tiptoed up to the roof. Lotus and the Doctor
lay peacefully on their sleeping couches, locked in the
profound sleep of early dawn and all unconscious of the
exciting events which had transpired. When Ralph re-
turned to the Laboratory, Geoffrey had turned on the
light in the ferrolith wndls and had released their pris-
oner, who sat hunched up in a chair, glowering at his
captors.

“You see what you can get out of him, Ralph,” sug-
gested Geoffrey. “If he doesn’t see fit to answer politely,
there’s always the balcony. I’ll tell you ! What do you
say if I drop him over and you follow him down in the
plane? You can catch him before he hits the bottom.
Maybe the sensation of a thousand foot fall will open
his ugly mouth for him.”

Ralph, who could hardly suppress a smile at Geof-
frey’s assumed role, turned to the negro.

“Now then, my friend, let us hear what you have to
say for yourself,” he said.

There was no reply. The negro did not even deign to
look at the speaker, but kept his eyes fixed upon
Geoffrey in an unwavering stare.

“You won’t gain anything by sulking,” Ralph went
on, firmly. “Tell us who you are and what you mean by
spying on us.”

Still there was no reply and the negro continued to
regard Geoffrey unflinchingly.

“It looks as if he can’t or won’t talk, Geoff. What
shall we do?”

To his surprise, Geoffrey did not answer. When
Ralph looked around, he was amazed to see his friend
sitting bolt upright in his chair, his eyes closed and his
face as expressionless as a statue.

“Here, Geoff!” exclaimed Ralph in alarm. “What’s
the matter, old man?”

464

AMAZING STORIES QUARTERLY

The negro broke his silence for the first time.

“I am afraid your friend is slightly indisposed after
his strenuous exertions,” he said, in smooth, cultivated
accents.

Ralph flashed an inquiring glance at the speaker.
The negro’s black eyes were fixed upon him in the same
unblinking stare with which he had been regarding
Geoffrey. There was something repellant in the chill
malignity of that gaze which caused a shiver of disgust
and fear to traverse Ralph’s spine. He tried to turn
his own eyes away and found, to his horror, that he
was powerless to do so. He tried to speak and could
not so much as open his lips. The paralysis which
rendered his body helpless was spreading to his brain.
He felt his senses leaving him, all except the sense of
sight, which was bound up in those unnatural eyes with
their ghastly white rims. Just as consciousness was de-
parting, he heard a voice.

“Listen to me, both of you, and learn who and what
I am. I, Kana, of the Rhodesian Division, have mas-
tered your puny minds as easily as that mountain of
muscle mastered my body. You wonder why I watched
you, though how you discovered that I did so I cannot
guess. You wish to know who it is I serve and what
I hope to gain by spying upon you. All these things
you shall learn, for you will not live to transmit your
knowledge to any other.

“Learn then, that I serve Clifford Weatherby, he
whom we, his willing servants, call The Master.
When the iron disease first threatened destruction of
the mines, one of us discovered an antidote. We can-
not restore the iron which has been destroyed, but we
stopped the ravages of the disease in the Master’s
mines at the very outset.

“The Board of Control is removing all the un-
tainted ore to the icefields in the south, little thinking
that in every load of ore which the planes carry to the
Antarctic, goes a piece of diseased ore, placed there by
the Master’s secret agents. In a year the hoarded ore
will turn to corruption on the ice. Then the Master,
with sole ownership of every ton of iron existing in the
world, will dispose of the Three and rule in their place.
Emperor of the Earth by the supreme right of wealth.

“The Master has .suspected you two of heresy ever
since you disappeared from your homes ten years ago.
I filled the place of Secretary to John Ballantyne and
gained his confidence. This was before the unexpected
advent of the iron disease, which brought success within
our grasp. After the Ironmasters’ Convention and the
Master’s banishment by the Three, we knew that
nothing could stand in the way of our plans save only
the possibility of some meddler and heretic finding a
means of reconverting the gold sulphide into iron.

“The Master set me, Kana, the task of seeking you
out, of sapping your knowledge, and then, of destroying
you utterly. You asked what I hoped to gain by spying
upon you from the cliffs. Does it surprise you to
learn that I know all about your worthless experi-
ments, all about your wild dreams of mining the Dark
Star? Fools! Kana was born without hearing. From
earliest childhood I have studied the lips until now I
can read them as easily as I can read a printed page.
Day by day I have watched your conferences on the
balcony, transmitting everything of importance to the
Master.

“And now I will make an end of you and your petty
schemes !”

He turned to the well-stocked shelves of the Labora-
tory and selected therefrom a bottle. Filling two
glasses with water he added a few drops of liquid
from the bottle to each. Then he drew a small table
between the motionless figures of the two men and
placed the glasses within their reach.

“I am of a sensitive disposition and dislike to watch
suffering,” he said, his lips drawn up in a snarl of
hate. “I am leaving you, taking the excellent plane in
which you brought me here. It is now past eleven.
When the clock above the door strikes the half hour,
you will awake and drink to the health of the Master
in this excellent strychnine with which you have so
kindly provided me. I have chosen this particular
drug because it will give you the keenest enjoyment
during its operation.

“Now may I thank you for your kind hospitality
and wish you a most pleasant journey to wherever you
may be going!”

The grinning negro turned upon his heel. His hand
was outstretched to open the door beneath the fatal
timepiece, when the door swung open noiselessly.

Framed in the opening stood the Japanese scientist.

Kana spoke no word, gave no start or gesture which
betrayed any sign of emotion. He simply stood and
fixed the doctor with that baleful stare. The two young
men, fully conscious but helpless to intervene, could
only sit and watch the unfortunate Japanese succumb
to the fatal influence.

To Ralph’s amazement, Dr. Umetaro displayed no
symptoms of hypnotic sleep. He stood in the doorway,
looking at Kana with a benign smile, as though he
were welcoming a dear friend, for whom he was slightly
sorry. Then he began to advance into the room with
slow steps. For every step that the Doctor advanced,
Kana retreated a pace until he backed past the two
seated figures and stood against the wall.

Ralph could see that Kana’s face was utterly trans-
formed. The glare of animal malignity had departed,
leaving an expression of peace. The thick lips, no longer
drawn back from the teeth in the cruel grin of a satyr,
wore the natural smile of a contented child.

The Doctor pushed a light couch to the wall where
Kana stood motionless.

“Lie down, my friend,” said the Japanese, in the
tone of a mother soothing a fractious child. “Lie down
and sleep.”

Kana stretched his long arms with a gesture of
weariness and extended himself upon the couch. His
eyes closed and he relapsed into what was apparently
a deep natural slumber.

CHAPTER IX
The Claverly Operation

T HAT day, work was forgotten. The dramatic
suddenness with which their idyllic peace had been
broken, drove everything from their minds save
the one thought of how they could cope with the prob-
lem which confronted them— the problem of Clifford
Weatherby’s enmity and its bearing on their hopes and
ambitions.

In a few moments after Kana had been transformed
from a ravening beast into a sleeping child by the
power of Dr. Umetaro’s will, the Japanese had aroused
Ralph and Geoffrey from their condition of hypnotic
paralysis. Released from the unholy spell wffiich bound
him, Ralph’s first thought was of Lotus and he turned
to behold her standing in the doorway. Her eyes,
still dewy with sleep, mirrored in their violet depths
the amazement and concern she felt at the strange
scene.

Explanations were in order. The four friends ad-
journed to the balcony, leaving the negro wrapped in
unconsciousness which would last unbroken until the
Doctor awakened him. By tacit mutual agreement noth-
ing was said with regard to the events of the night,
until their breakfast of fruit and ghilna biscuits had

A MODERN PROMETHEUS

465

been consumed. The dawn was flooding the valley
with golden light. The wind fanned them with that in-
describable freshness which conveys the impression
that each new morning in the mountains has been
especially created by the All Wise for the delectation
of his children. An impertinent bird, a Whisky Jack
or Canadian Jay, the feathered clown of the Canadian
Rockies, hopped on the railing and ate crumbs from
Lotus’ fingers.

“Now, Ralph,” said the Doctor, when the meal was
finished, “perhaps you will tell us the meaning of the
tableau which I interrupted.”

Dr. Umetaro used the given name for the first time
and Ralph felt instinctively that the simple word meant
much more, coming from the Doctor, than it would have
implied from most people. Typical representative of
a race whose progressiveness was shot through with
the stately conservatism of the ancient samurai, Dr.
Umetaro used the old-fashioned forms of address which
the vast majority had discarded. It was not until
friendship had been purified in the furnace of some
great mutual trial that he felt justified in the use
of the simpler names.

It was with a consciousness of an added bond between
them, therefore, that Ralph began his narrative, and
it is certain that his story, like that of Othello, lost

There , framed in the opening , stood the Japanese scientist.

466

AMAZING STORIES QUARTERLY

nothing from the sympathy and absorbed interest of
his Desdemona. When Ralph ceased speaking, Geoffrey
recounted his share in the night’s adventures.

“Now, Doctor, it is your turn,” said Lotus. “By
what miracle did you appear upon the scene just in
time? I want to know — though I think I can guess!”

“Yes, I think you can guess, Lotus San,” smiled the
Doctor. “You understand, of course, that Kana, who
is a negro, apparently from some part of Central
Africa, is an adept at the use of hypnotism, an art
which has been almost forgotten, except among certain
races, from which all the advantages of civilization
have not completely purged the ancient evil.

“It chances that I too have studied this art, not
that I might use it as Kana did, to work harm upon
my brothers, but because it was the key to certain
discoveries in the science of surgical anaesthesia. It
may surprise you to know that hypnotism is not solely
a matter of suggestion, as savants of the twentieth cen-
tury believed. The superstitions of those past times
had a basis in fact. It is indeed possible for a human
being, by long years of devoted study, to learn to con-
trol the actions of a weaker mind from a distance, but
woe betide such an adept who attempts to use his
learning to injure others!

“This higher form of hypnosis being, as I have said,
a mental process, it is impossible for one adept to
practice it without the mind waves impinging upon
the sensitive consciousness of any other adept in the
vicinity. This being the case, when Kana began to
concentrate his mental force upon you two young men,
I was instantly awakened. At first I did not recognize
the cause of my cerebral disturbance. It was not until
I heard Kana’s voice raised in the words ‘Now I will
make an end of you!’ that I realized your peril and
hastened to your assistance.”

“This makes twice that I owe my life to you, Doc-
tor,” said Ralph, with emotion. “How can I ever repay
you ?”

“Or I?” Geoffrey interjected. “It turns my blood
cold to think what would have happened if you had
been unable to overcome Kana’s will.”

“Such a contingency was impossible, my dear Geof-
frey,” said the Doctor, confidently. “Whatever may be
the case in the physical world, God always masters Evil
in the mental world. This is not merely a pretty
phrase; a platitude culled from some religious volume
of the past. It is a cold, demonstratable scientific fact,
though not stated in a very scientific fashion. It would
be more correct to say that strength is good, weakness
is evil.”

“What did you mean by saying that you thought
you could guess the cause of the Doctor’s awakening?”
Ralph asked, turning to Lotus. Before the girl could
reply, the Doctor interposed.

“Is she not your chosen companion, my friend?”
he asked softly. “If a mother awakens at the slightest
movement of her baby, shall not a woman be aware when
her chosen mate is in peril? In the interval between
my awakening and the sound of Kana’s voice, I heard
Lotus San tossing and moaning like a soul in pain.”

T HE long silence which ensued was broken at last
by Geoffrey.

“Well — now that we’ve got this precious Kana, what
are we going to do with him?” he demanded brusquely.
“We can’t keep him unconscious — he’s got to have
nourishment. We can’t keep him prisoner. We have
no right to do so, and, besides, it wouldn’t be human.
We can’t turn him over to the Three, for that would
mean the end of our work. And we can’t turn him
loose, for if we do, he’ll go back to that mad master
of his and plot more deviltries.”

“You have summed up the situation with brevity
and precision, my dear Geoffrey,” commented the Doc-
tor. “Has anyone any solution to suggest?”

The two younger men shook their heads dubiously,
but Lotus, who had been watching the Doctor’s face,
exclaimed :

“Dr. Umetaro, I’m sure you have a plan! I can tell
it from your smile and I’m equally sure that it’s a
good, kind plan.”

“Yes, I have a plan, as your intuition has divined,
Lotus San,” admitted the Doctor, laughing, “Why
should we not perform the Claverly operation?”

“But, Doctor, he will never consent!” protested Lotus,
shaking her head. “We dare not perform it upon a
normal person without his written consent and I am
sure he would never give it.”

“We will pass over the doubtful question of Kana’s
normality,” replied the Doctor. “As to the impossibility
of gaining his consent, I think I can promise to over-
come his objections.”

The others had listened to this conversation in un-
comprehending wonder.

“What on earth are you talking about?” Ralph burst
out. “What is this Claverly operation, and how does
Lotus know so much about it, anyway?”

“Lotus San understands because she is a trained
nurse,” replied the Doctor.

“You — a trained nurse, my Flower?” cried Ralph.

“I have been a nurse in the Jacksonville Hospital
for Abnormals for several years, dear,” Lotus explained,
“although how Dr. Umetaro knew of the fact is be-
yond me.”

“We surgeons know many things,” replied the Doctor
cryptically. “As to the Claverly operation, it is an
operation the technique of which was perfected by
Dr. Samuel Claverly in the late years of the twentieth
century. It is practiced occasionally upon persons of
subnormal morality. Certain deeply seated portions
of the brain are excised, resulting in a complete trans-
formation of the mental attitude, without in any way
affecting the intellect. It is a difficult and dangerous
operation, and may be performed only with the written
permission of the patient, as Lotus San has stated.”

“I’ve heard something about the work at Jackson-
ville,” Geoffrey said, “but I never knew anything in
detail about the operations. Is it a fact that surgeons
can open a man’s head and rearrange his brains to
suit themselves?”

“Not quite that!” replied the Doctor, laughing
heartily. “The Claverly operation does not alter the
character or intellect in any way. What it does is
to change the direction or trend of the patient’s mental
processes.”

“That sounds a bit obscure,” Ralph commented.

“It’s really quite simple,” the Doctor elucidated.
“You understand, of course, that the body contains cer-
tain tiny organs known as the ductless glands and that
the function of some of these glands is to control the
rate of growth of the body. Decrease the rate of flow
from these glands and you produce dwarfs. Increase
it and you produce giants.

“Let us compare the ductless glands to the carburetor
of the old style gasoline engines. This mechanism,
very small in comparison with the motor with which it
was associated, controlled the rate at which the gasoline
flowed to the cylinders. If the engine were driven at
high speed, a tiny valve automatically permitted more
gasoline to flow. If the engine were idling, the valve
was partially closed, thus shutting off the atomized
and gasefied liquid. This gives you a rough notion of
the function of the ductless glands.

“Throughout the countless ages during which man
has progressed from the ‘beast’ stage to his present

A MODERN PROMETHEUS 467

state, the ductless glands have been the controlling
factor which enabled the body to conform to the re-
quirements of the environment. They were the hand
upon the throttle which guided the growth of the human
body to its destined form. The truth of this is demon-
strated by the fact that surgical interference with
these glands results in a corresponding change in the
rate or direction of growth, producing monstrosities.

A LL this was known a very long time ago, but it
remained for Claverly to discover that there are
groups of cells in the brain which are comparable in
their functions to the ductless glands. These cells, in
some mysterious way, which we have not been able
to fathom, dictate the growth of the rest of the brain
cells. One group seems to control what we call the in-
tellect, others the memory, still others the trend or
bias of thought. It is these last with which the Claverly
operation is concerned. They are known collectively as
the Claverly tissue.

“You must bear in mind that the development of the
Claverly tissue, as of all the cerebral control tissues
and the ductless glands, is the direct result of environ-
ment and evolution. Until the last few millennia, man
was forced by his surroundings to be a combative
animal, preying upon his fellow men, and upon the lower
animals. The Claverly tissue gave the brain a bias or
‘set’ which accorded with these surroundings. Co-
operation, brotherly love, and all the other social virtues
which are commonplace today, would have been of little
value to the cave dwellers ten thousand years ago; in
fact they would have been a decided detriment.

“As the ages passed away and mankind gradually
developed what we may call a moral sense, using the
expression in its widest meaning, the Claverly tissue
became modified. Men’s primal instincts remained un-
changed but their resultant emotion was altered. To
make a comparison, wolves shun the flames of a camp
fire, but the domestic dog, blood-brother of the wolf,
seeks the fire in order that he may curl himself up
beside it and enjoy its grateful warmth.

“Just so the modification of the Claverly tissue, itself
the direct result of changed surroundings, has trans-
formed destructive hatred to constructive energy, rage
to enthusiasm, lust to love, malicious secrecy to the
generous impulse which prompts us to conceal some
pleasant surprise from a dear friend, that his enjoyment
may thereby be enhanced.

“We find, however, even at the present day, certain
persons whom we call abnormals, in whom the Claverly
tissue is overdeveloped. Such persons exhibit exactly
the mental traits which one would anticipate in a cave-
man. They are moral ‘throw-backs’. They show a re-
turn in mentality to primeval stock, just as a man,
with an excessively hairy body or overdeveloped canines,
would show a similar return to first principles from a
physical standpoint.

“The triumph of the Claverly operation is in the
fact that by its help we are enabled to overcome or
reverse this abnormal condition. By cutting away a
small portion of the Claverly tissue, the patient’s mind
is given the requisite social attitude which will enable
it to align itself with modern conditions, instead of
being at war with all its fellow beings.

“Kana is one of these mental throw-backs. The Clav-
erly operation will transform him into a useful member
of society.”

The others had listened to Dr. Umetaro’s somewhat
lengthy lecture with intense interest. Lotus was, of
course, familiar with the subject, but it was all new
to Ralph and Geoffrey. The latter propounded a
question,

“You speak of gaining Kana’s consent to the opera-

tion, Doctor,” he said. “Do you propose to get his
signature while he is under the hypnotic influence?”

“While that would be possible, my dear Geoffrey,”
replied the Doctor, “to do so would be exhibiting the
very traits of unsocial deception which we are de-
ploring in Kana. You see, while it would be Kana’s hand
which signed the paper, it would be my mind which
guided the hand. In other words it would be hypnotic
forgery.”

“Then I don’t understand how you will ever gain
his consent,” said Geoffrey, “for it is obvious that Kana
is entirely satisfied with himself as he is.”

Nevertheless, he will sign the paper and sign
willingly, even eagerly,” averred the Doctor.

“Explain yourself!” cried Lotus with mock imperi-
ousness.

“I shall awaken Kana,” responded the Doctor, “and
give him a free choice between submitting to the
Claverly operation or being taken into the presence of
the Three. It is true that the latter alternative will
mean the destruction of all our hopes for saving the
commercial structure of the world, but it will also
mean the end of Clifford Weatherby’s dream of power.
In his present state of mind it will be inconceivable to
Kana, that the Master, as he calls Weatherby, can
fail in the accomplishment of his ambitions. He will
willingly submit to the operation therefore, although
it will mean the end of his usefulness to Weatherby,
because he knows that he, Kana, is only one cog in
the machinery of Weatherby’s nefarious schemes, and
that the removal of that one cog can have little or no
effect upon the whole mechanism.”

“You have a solution to everything, Doctor!” Ralph
exclaimed, in unconcealed admiration.

“Have I your permission to awaken Kana and offer
him the choice I have indicated?” asked Dr. Umetaro.

All three signified their unqualified approval.

“Very well, then. Let us return to the study.”

The negro was lying as they had left him. His
head was pillowed upon one huge arm; his heavily
muscled chest rose and fell with deep, even respiration ;
his thick lips were slightly parted in a half smile.

The Doctor stood above him, his slight, wiry physique
contrasting strangely with the squat, massive bulk of
the recumbent negro.

“Listen, Kana!” said the Japanese in deep, intense
tones. “At the word of command you will awaken. You
will regain your senses, open your eyes, speak. You will
again be your own master in every respect, save that
you will be unable to arise. Kana! Awake!”

K ANA’S eyelids stirred, flickered, rose. Slowly, and
at first uncomprehending, his eyes took in the
scene, passing from one to another of the group. Then,
as he caught sight of Ralph, the peaceful look vanished,
to be replaced with an expression of such virulent
hatred that Lotus shrank back instinctively with a little
cry of dismay. At the sound, the blazing eyes with
their uncanny white rims were turned upon her.

“So! You are all here?” he spat out. “You, too,
woman, who has returned the Master’s love and care
by plotting with his enemies! You expect to com-
panion with this heretic dog you call Ralph Morton. It
is lucky for you that yonder yellow cur proved stronger
than Kana or you would have found a nice, cold, twisted
corpse to which you could have given your morning
kiss!”

“Be silent, Kana,” said the Doctor, mildly. “You
are under my control now, it is true, but only that
you may not further endanger our lives by your un-
natural rage. I have come to make you an offer. If
you refuse it, you are free to go and I myself will take
you wherever you desire. We cannot hold you in re-

468

AMAZING STORIES QUARTERLY

straint, for that would be to break the Law of the
Triangle.”

“It were better for you that you should drop me
over the balcony as that elephant suggested,” growled
Kana, glaring at Geoffrey, “for be sure, if you free
me, the Master’s vengeance will be swift and terrible!
Well, make your offer and let me go!”

“You have your choice of two things, Kana,” said
the Doctor, still in the same calm, unruffled manner.
“Either you shall sign this paper of your free will
or we will release you to go back to your master. But
remember, that in the event of your choosing the latter
alternative, we four shall be in the presence of the
Three before you can reach Clifford Weatherby and to
the Three we will make report of all we know.”

Kana disregarded the paper which was held in front
of his eyes and looked at the Doctor in amazement.

“You would go to the Three!” he muttered, unbe-
lievingly. “The Three who would order the destruction
of your laboratories and condemn you all to banish-
ment!”

The Doctor made no reply, but pointed silently to
the paper. Kana’s eyes scanned it rapidly, and as he
read, the hatred which he had previously displayed
was as nothing to the consuming passion which now
distorted his features.

“The Claverly operation!” he roared furiously. “You
would submit me to the Claverly operation and make
me into a whining milksop, like yourselves?”

“Only with your free consent, Kana,” corrected the
Doctor, silkily. “If you do not wish to sign, say so
and you are free — until the Three send for you.”

The play of emotions upon Kana’s black face defied
description.

“You devil!” he exclaimed at length, a touch of un-
willing admiration in his voice. “Your choice is no
choice at all! Who am I that I should purchase my
soul at the price of the master’s betrayal? Free my
hand and give me the pen. But stay! If I submit
myself to the Claverly operation,- do you four swear that
you will not report these events to the Three?”

“We promise, Kana, we do not swear,” said the
Doctor gravely, while the others nodded their assent.

“I believe you,” hissed the negro, “not because I
trust you, but because you dare not go to the Three!
Give me the pen!”

The Doctor freed Kana’s right arm and he signed
the paper with a flourish.

“Bring on your butcher’s tools!” he cried, flinging
the pen across the room viciously. “I am ready!” He
closed his lips and spoke no more.

Dr. Umetaro had come prepared for Kana’s capitula-
tion. In a moment he had adjusted around the negro’s
neck a metal harness to which were attached two pro-
jecting fingers, somewhat similar to the contrivance
which Ralph had worn during his convalescence. Almost
instantly Kana became unconscious.

“My substitute for the old-fashioned anaesthetic,”
explained the Doctor. “These fingers, by pressure upon
the appropriate nerves, produce instant and complete
unconsciousness, without in the least affecting the
functions of the organs. As a matter of fact, it is
perfectly possible to perform most operations with
‘memory blocking’ as I call the method I used on you,
Ralph. As in the case of ‘Twilight Sleep,’ an anaes-
thetic in common use about two centuries ago, ‘memory
blocking’ does not deaden pain at all. It simply causes
the subject to forget pain the instant it has passed. I
did not deem it wise to use the ‘memory block’ in
Kana’s case, on account of his violent temperament.

“Now, my dear Geoffrey, will you kindly carry our
patient to the roof, while I prepare my instruments.”

I N a little while Kana was lying face downward
upon an improvised operating table which Ralph
had erected. Lotus shaved away the kinky black wool
for a considerable distance around the spot which the
Doctor indicated, and performed the various prelimi-
nary preparations with the accustomed confidence of
the skillful nurse.

Ralph and Geoffrey were both conscious of a qualm
of suppressed horror as the Doctor, with swift move-
ments, cut a series of free incisions in the scalp and
turned back the flaps of skin, which Lotus secured by
means of clamps. In this age of universal peace and
health, neither of the young men had ever seen an
operation performed and when the tiny, motor-driven
saw began to bite into the exposed skull, it required
an effort on Ralph’s part to prevent him from turning
away his head.

The complete unconcern with which Lotus did her
share and a running fire of comments from the Doctor,
had the effect of steadying Ralph’s nerves and before
long he found himself watching with admiration the
slender yellow fingers as they guided the instruments.

“It was formerly customary to use a circular trepan,”
remarked the Japanese, “and the opening in the skull
had to be closed by means of a platinum or silver
plate. Claverly perfected the instrument which I am
using. As you see, it removes a star-shaped plug of
bone, which is then placed in this aseptic fluid. At the
conclusion of the operation, the plug is replaced and
grows into the skull.”

When the surface of the brain lay bare to their
sight, the Doctor gave a little grunt of surprise.

“No wonder Kana is a throw-back,” he exclaimed.
“The anterior portion of the Claverly tissue is nearly
twice as large as in normal brains. Now gentlemen,
comes the delicate part of the operation. I must ask
you to be perfectly silent and to refrain from any sud-
den movement. Lotus San, please hand me the cere-
brotome.”

For the next twenty minutes Ralph and Geoffrey
watched in breathless absorption a display of manual
dexterity which, in spite of their inexperience in such
things, filled them with amazement. When it was
over, the Doctor laid aside his scalpel with a sigh of
relief and picked up forceps, with which he replaced
the star-shaped plug of bone. Finally, he drew the
flaps of skin into place, sealing each incision with a
liquid cement, which hardened instantly to the con-
sistency of rubber.

“Another improvement for which we have to thank
the Rebels!” he commented. “What do you think of
it, Lotus San?”

“I think it’s wonderful, Doctor,” replied the girl,
“but doesn’t the cement interfere with healing?”
“Not in the least,” the Doctor assured her. “It
has every desirable property; rapid hardening, great
tenacity, strength and elasticity, besides being com-
pletely porous, transparent and powerfully antiseptic.
It may be removed instantly by applying this liquid.”
“You see, Ralph,” explained Lotus, “I have always
been accustomed to seeing incisions stitched up. The
surgeons at Jacksonville use no other method of closing
wounds. Bad scars are often the result.”
Involuntarily her eyes strayed to Geoffrey’s face.
She turned away instantly, flushing red in embarrass-
ment that she should have caused pain by her care-
less remark.

“A relic of the dark ages!” smiled the Doctor, as
he adjusted the last of the dressings. “Superficial
sutures in the Age of Social Enlightenment! The
modern outlook on science conveyed in a single
sentence!”

Lotus mentally blessed the Doctor for his gallant at-

A MODERN PROMETHEUS

469

tempt to gloss over her discomfort, but she was not
entirely happy. In one brief glance she had seen
Geoffrey’s face, redder than her own and with the
ugly scar standing out in ghastly whiteness.

Her embarrassment lasted but a moment before it
was driven out by another emotion. There swept across
the tablets of her mind that undefinable sensation of
witnessing a repetition of some long-forgotten experi-
ence. Who was this Geoffrey Von Elmar? Where had
she seen that huge form and scarred face before? Why
had the sight of him awakened no memory until she
saw him turning away and flushing crimson with shame
at her heedless remark?

There was no answer to these questions forthcoming,
either then or later, when, restless and puzzled, she lay
awake on her couch, turning the problem over and over
in her mind and studying the face of Geoffrey Von
Elmar as he lay sleeping in the moonlight.

CHAPTER X

The Discovery of Florium

A UTUMN was laying her golden hand on the moun-
r\ tains caressingly, glorifying the valleys with a
riot of color, as though to soften the harshness
of the coming winter, or, perhaps, to leave a memory of
beauty which should brighten the tedium of the long,
cold months.

The outlines of the peaks, shorn of their gaunt
primitiveness by an enveloping mantle of blue haze,
seemed to draw nearer and smile in gracious friend-
liness. Already a few brief flurries of snow had
whirled their way flippantly up the glacier and whit-
ened the summits, revealing shelves and ledges whose
presence passed unsuspected until the feathery flakes
settled there and revealed them.

The weeks had been filled with work and study for
the four friends, with the added labor, in Dr. Umetaro’s
case, of tending the unconscious Kana. The advent
of the negro with his news of Clifford Weatherby’s
underhanded schemes drove away all desire to relax
their efforts. The Doctor had nothing to report from
Rebel Headquarters save the daily message, “No re-
sults!” If only they could discover the antidote for
the disease, they might yet save the ore in Antarctica
which Weatherby’s agents had infected. Perhaps Kana
could be induced to reveal the secret.

Ralph suggested the possibility of this to Dr. Ume-
taro, who smiled inscrutably.

“By all means ask him,” was all he said, but he
shot a questioning glance at Lotus, who nodded in
silent reply, as though the two had some secret under-
standing.

At last the day came when the Doctor proclaimed
Kana completely recovered, though still very weak.

“Carry our friend to the balcony, my dear Geoffrey,”
said the little surgeon, “and I will restore him to
consciousness. Come, Ralph! Come, Lotus San!” he
called to the workers in the laboratory. “Let our friend
awaken to his new life surrounded with smiling,
friendly faces.”

Geoffrey deposited Kana’s inert figure on a reclining
chair and the others gathered round wonderingly and
a little doubtfully as Dr. Umetaro removed the bandages
which swathed the black head. A touch with a brush
dipped in liquid and the leathery adhesive came
away. There was no trace of the wound except for the
shaven spot and even this was already showing a new
growth of hair.

Lastly, the Doctor removed the anaesthetizing
clamps from the neck and stood back.

Slowly the heavy lids were raised and Kana looked

from one to another of the smiling faces with puzzled,
lifeless eyes, which no longer burned with their old-
time animal ferocity. Suddenly his features were lit
by the full flame of intelligence and he struggled to
rise, only to fall back in weakness.

“The Claverly operation!” he murmured softly and
again, “The Claverly operation!” He turned his eyes,
all wet with tears, to the Doctor’s genial face, and feebly
extended his hand. “Thank you! Oh! Thank you,
my friend. To think that I should have hesitated to
sign! Your wish, Ralph! And you, Geoffrey and Miss
Grenville. May the All Wise reward you for what
you have done!”

As the days passed and Kana slowly regained his
full strength, the amazement of Ralph and Geoffrey
increased rather than diminished. Unconsciously, they
had both questioned the efficacy of the operation and
they regarded Kana’s transformation as something of a
miracle.

As though by direct contrast, the new Kana displayed
a gentleness and sweetness which would have bordered
on effeminacy, but for the inherent manliness of his
character’. Next to the Doctor, whom he worshipped
with an almost canine devotion, Kana fixed his affec-
tions upon Ralph, displaying an attitude which seemed
to imply the desire to make amends for some great
wrong.

It must not be supposed that Kana had, in the slight-
est degree, forgotten his former life. He remembered
it with as much vividness as though the Claverly opera-
tion had effected no change in him. Indeed, he re-
tained many of his former characteristics, at least those
which may be described as beneficent, as Geoffrey had
occasion to discover with great emphasis, when he
attempted to question Kana about Weatherby and es-
pecially with regard to the antidote to the iron disease.

“You find me much changed, my friend,” Kana replied
to Geoffrey’s interrogations, “as indeed I am, but in one
small matter the Claverly operation has made no differ-
ence. When Dr. Umetaro’s blessed knife cut away the
foul cells from Kana’s brain, it did not remove his
loyalty and faithfulness to those who had the right to
claim them in the past. I loved him whom I called the
Master. Inconceivable as it is to me now, I loved him.
That my love has been transformed to hatred and
disgust does not weaken my loyalty in those matters
which concern my past existence.

“To you four I owe all that makes life worth living.
Ask me what you will in repayment; yes, even life
itself, and I will give it freely and gladly, but do not
ask me to betray the secrets I learned before I was
reborn, for you shall tear my tongue from its roots
and burn my body to ashes before I will break silence.”

The negro’s lustrous orbs blazed with the internal
fire which had chilled the blood in Geoffrey’s veins at
their first meeting, but now it -was the fire of noble
resolve and the young man turned away, ashamed that
he should have so much as thought of asking Kana
to descend to his former level of deceit.

T HE passing of the centuries has not lessened the
strangeness of what cynics are pleased to call
coincidence, but which seers and scientists call Fate.
Kana had broken into the hidden valley to spy upon
and destroy its inmates. He had come equipped with
all the powers of evil to accomplish his Master’s ends.
The transformed Kana was withheld by his innate sense
of loyalty from rendering the help which he so longed to
give. Yet it was through Kana that there came the
first ray of hope which illumined the researches of the
four workers, since they had undertaken the voluntary
task of replacing the lost iron mines of the world.

It came about in this wise.

470

AMAZING STORIES QUARTERLY

The four men were sitting on the balcony watching
Orion heave his glittering shoulders over the eastern
ranges. The chill of winter was in the night air and
Ralph, ever watchful for the comfort of others, saw
Kana shiver.

“My Flower,” he called to Lotus who was preparing
the sleeping couches on the roof-space. “Kana is cold.
Will you bring him one of my tunics?”

Lotus brought the tunic and folded it around the
negro’s shoulders. He looked up at her with a grateful
smile and buried his hands in the warm fabric. A
moment later, he drew from one of the pockets a lump
of some heavy material. When he held it up in the
faint starlight, it shone with an unearthly, purple phos-
phorescence.

“What a beautiful thing!” he cried.

His exclamation drew the attention of the others
and the glittering object was passed from hand to
hand until it reached Ralph. He recognized it instantly.

“Why Lotus, do you know what this is?” he said.
“It is a piece of the amethyst rock from the bed of
the glacier. I broke it off and put it in my pocket
when I left you to search for a way of escape. Look,
Geoff!”

Geoffrey seized the gleaming stone and examined it,
with growing excitement, by the light of his pocket
torch. He had specialized in geology and his expert
eyes immediately confirmed what Ralph had dimly sus-
pected when he found the substance under the ice.

“It’s new, absolutely new!” he exclaimed. “It’s
utterly unlike any known mineral. It has the color
of an amethyst, combined with the softness of talc.
It has the opacity and texture of chalk, together with
a true phosphorescence far more intense than any other
compound, either natural or artificial. This is cer-
tainly a find, Ralph.”

Ralph took the brilliant stone from his excited
friend and turned a smiling face to Lotus.

“It is the most beautiful thing in the world, Beloved,
since it witnessed our meeting. When we are com-
panioned, we will place it in our home to light the
paths of memory.”

“I appreciate your sentimental affection for this
lump of rock, my dear Ralph,” intervened the Doctor,
quizzically, “but I fear that duty must come before
sentiment. We made up our minds long ago to leave
no stone unturned in our search for a cure for the
iron disease. Surely this stone also must be submitted
to the turning process, or, in other words, to analysis.
Perhaps I am foolish, but that steady purple light
seems to shine out with a promise of some great
discovery.”

“Of course, you are right. Doctor,” Ralph replied.
“I will start work on it tomorrow.”

True to his word, Ralph plunged into the task of
analyzing the new mineral at an early hour next morn-
ing. He was assisted by Lotus, whose training included
a very fair knowledge of chemistry. Besides her tech-
nical qualifications, Lotus brought to Ralph the stimula-
tion and encouragement which only her loving, sym-
pathetic presence could provide.

Lotus’ perfect comprehension of the work on which
they were engaged made conversation unnecessary.
There were long silences between them, silences which
served to intensify the feeling of comradeship, a mental
phenomenon which is a commonplace with those who
share both work and pleasure. Sometimes, how-
ever, their absorption was broken by fragments of
conversation.

“Explain something to me, Ralph,” said the girl, on
one of these occasions. “I know how people look upon
the idea of scientific research. I understand, of course,
that what we are doing now is utterly at variance with

modern ethics. In fact, having grown up in strictly
orthodox surroundings, I can’t quite overcome the feel-
ing that we’re doing something horribly wicked in
tampering with science. Are you quite sure that re-
search work is not wrong?”

“Of course I’m sure, my Flower,” Ralph replied,
emphatically. “If any doubt lingered in my mind, do
you suppose that I would permit you to remain here?”
“Perhaps I might have had something to say in that
matter, my Ralph!” she smiled. “Of course, I accept
your assurance, but I simply cannot understand how
public opinion was turned against scientific progress.
In the olden days, the progress of civilization was ap-
parently measured in terms of the new inventions and
discoveries which were made. What could have caused
such a complete change in people’s feelings?”

R ALPH bent down to gauge the flow of a reagent
from a pipette. He made no reply to Lotus’ ques-
tion for several seconds.

“In the first place, Beloved,” he said straightening
up, “the world in the olden days was not nearly so
unanimous in its approval of scientific progress as you
think. In those days, education was by no means as
universal as it is today. There was a very curious
tendency amongst the ignorant to draw a sharp dividing
line between Pure Science or knowledge, and Applied
Science or accomplishment. There has never been a
period in the world’s history when students of science
for its own sake were not reviled and despised.”

“But how could they expect accomplishment without
knowledge?” asked Lotus, wonderingly. “One might
as well expect a man to build a house without plans
or — or to make bread without a recipe !”

“Or to kiss without lips?” Ralph added, laughing and
illustrating his example. “Nevertheless, such was the
case. Let me give you one example. Quite early in
the twentieth century there were two great scientists.
I am ashamed to say that I have for the moment for-
gotten both their names, but it doesn’t matter. One was
an American, the other a German. The American was
not what we should call a great theorist, but he had a
wonderful genius for applying the discoveries of others
to the everyday uses of man. He probably made more
practical inventions than any man who ever lived and
he was universally revered as a benefactor of mankind.

“The German, on the other hand, was a dreamer of
unsurpassed mathematical genius. He made discoveries
in pure science before which the great thinkers of today
stand amazed and spellbound. Was he honored for his
mighty accomplishments? Not in the least! Except
for a few far-seeing fellow scientists, his work was
the subject of contempt and ridicule. So-called funny
papers used him as the butt for their cheap sarcasms
and the reputation of many a public speaker was made
by the introduction of some stupid joke bearing upon
the great Teutonic Scientist.”

“But, Ralph! Why! Why!” cried Lotus, her lips
trembling with indignation.

“Simply because you can’t eat a mathematical
formula, my Flower,” Ralph answered, “neither can you
build houses nor planes from the stuff of which dreams
are made. The people were too blind, as they are to-
day, to realize that theory must come before practice,
as dawn must precede day. It was not until fifty years
later, when some common mechanic discovered that
this German’s formulas were a complete solution of
directed power transmission by radio, that the world
awoke to the greatness of the genius whom they had
derided. Even then, it was the mechanic who received
nine-tenths of the credit!”

“How ridiculous!” exclaimed the girl. “Tell me
more, Ralph.”

A MODERN PROMETHEUS

471

In the midst of the chaos stood
Ralph. . . . In his right hand
he held aloft the bar of florium,
shining with the ghostly blue
radiance which illumined the
moon.

“Most people think,” continued Ralph, “that what we
call the Orthodox Body of Scientific Beliefs was es-
tablished at the same time as the foundation of the
Board of Control in Santa Lucia, but the fact is that
the world was prepared for such a change long before
this. As early as 1920 various states and nations
began to pass laws against scientific research. Don’t
make a mistake. It wasn’t the application of science
they objected to; it was knowledge. In effect, these
laws said, ‘You may build planes, install machinery, do
anything you like to make our lives happier and more
comfortable, but you must do it blindfold. You must
neither study nor teach the very things which we wish
you to accomplish.’ ”

“I have never heard this before, Ralph. Please
go on.”

“There’s not much more to tell. As you know, the
Age of Social Enlightenment brought about a healthier,
saner way of life. One of the results of this was that
people lost interest in pure science. It wasn’t long be-
fore the world began to look back upon the scientists
of the past as gods, or at least, as inspired prophets.
The revelations of these divine beings were regarded
as sacred. This attitude grew with the passage of
time, until today the mere idea of adding to or taking
from the Orthodox Body of Scientific Belief is looked
upon with horror and loathing.”

At last, the tedious and exacting work of analysis
was complete. Ralph called the others around him and

472

AMAZING STORIES QUARTERLY

displayed for their inspection a little cylinder of metal,
measuring about three centimeters in diameter and
twelve in length. It was azure blue in hue and shone
with a steady radiance many times as intense as that
of the mineral from which it was derived.

“Let me be the first to congratulate you, my dear
Ralph,” cried the Doctor. “There is no possible ques-
tion that you have discovered a new element; the first
to be added to the list for more than two centuries.”

“A new element!” exclaimed Lotus. “What shall we
call it?”

“How about glacium?” suggested Geoffrey, “in mem-
ory of the frozen chasm in which you found it?”

“Would it not be appropriate for the discoverer to
have the honor of choosing a name?” spoke Kana, from
his reclining chair, by the wall. The idea was unani-
mously approved.

“Then I shall call our new element, florium,” said
Ralph as he passed his arm around Lotus 1 shoulders
and drew her to him, “in memory of the Flower which
blossoms in my life.”

“Florium! Accepted!” from the others.

“Excellent!” said the Doctor. “Now it only remains
to determine the properties of florium and experiment
with it in order to see if it will aid us in our task of
curing the iron disease.”

“That is not a long task,” said Ralph. “I will start
to work now.”

“But it’s supper time, dearest,” protested Lotus.
“Surely you have worked long enough for today.”

“I could not rest or sleep until I have determined
at least the principal properties of florium,” Ralph
answered. “Its hardness, elasticity, electrical and
chemical reactions — it won’t take more than a couple
of hours. Just this once, have supper without me. I
can’t eat until I have finished,” and he turned back to
the bench.

Fifteen minutes later, Lotus, Geoffrey, Kana and
the Doctor were gathered around the supper table on
the balcony. The serene silence of a late September
evening brooded over the valley and was mirrored in
the silence of the four friends.

"Suddenly, from the direction of the laboratory, came
the sound of a tremendous crash. The entire building
trembled as though with the impact of hundreds of
tons of rock, falling from above. Clouds of dust bil-
lowed out of the open light-spaces and floated slowly
away on the still air.

For a moment they sat in stunned terror. Their
faces showed the simultaneous fear of some terrible
catastrophe. Next instant they were on their feet and
crowding through the door of the laboratory.

What a sight met their eyes!

The room was in semi-darkness. The opaque wail-
screens had closed as the result of the tremendous shock,
cutting off the light of day. Only by a bluish radiance
which came from one end of the room and diffused
itself into every part, they saw that all the elaborate
equipment of the laboratory was torn from its fasten-
ings and piled up in confused heaps, wrecked beyond
repair. Benches, ferroverters, lathes, machine tools,
were lying in tangled masses, many of the steel parts
being bent into distorted shapes, as though by the
clutch of some giant hand.

In the midst of the chaos stood Ralph. His tunic
lay on the floor. His shoulder bore an ugly, ragged
gash, from which the blood flowed freely. In his right
hand he held aloft the bar of florium, shining with the
ghostly blue radiance which illumined the room. His
face bore an expression of ecstatic triumph.

“Florium! florium!” he cried. “All is solved!”

His knees sagged and his body slumped forward into
Geoffrey’s arms.

CHAPTER XI
Eternal Calm

S UNSET at sea. A sky, cloudless save in the west,
where tenuous filaments of fairy gold hung motion-
less in a furnace of crimson glory, beneath which
the ocean, unbroken by even so much as a breath of
wind, heaved slowly. Far away in the northwest, a
broken line of royal purple revealed the presence of a
distant shoreline.

Ten thousand feet above the glassy surface of the
sea, a single plane was cleaving the air with the quiet,
effortless flight of a swallow. The plane was a small
one, in comparison with the mighty ocean liners of the
day, being a light six-seater, built for speed and com-
fort, rather than for carrying power. At first sight,
the plane seemed to differ but slightly in design from
the gasoline-driven airships of the early twentieth cen-
tury, but closer inspection would have revealed marked
difference in basic principle from the crude machines
of those far-off days.

The wings, which were very small in proportion to
the weight to be carried, were not covered with a
uniform layer of varnished fabric or sheet metal, but
were composed of thousands of tiny circular discs with
spaces between. These discs, known as the Lifting
Helices, were pivoted individually, each being provided
with a driving motor no larger than a thumbnail.

The motors were something more than merely driv-
ing units, since they possessed the power of picking
up the high tension oscillatory currents from the radio
power-base and transforming them into rotary motion
for the lifting helices, half of which turned in one
direction and half in the other. The tiny motors were
extremely simple in construction, being turned out
in thousands by automatic machinery which was de-
signed by the inventor in 1987, since when, of course,
no change had been made.

No driving propeller was provided, the plane pro-
gressing by a continuous action of “falling down' hill.”
This gliding process was made possible by the fact
that the wings were true planes, since the little whirl-
ing discs formed a practically continuous surface. In
other words, the planes of the twenty-third century
were gliders, maintained in the air by a combination
of vertical suction and wing support.

Radio power lines radiated from the huge hydro-
static and tidal power plants to all parts of the world
and 'so long as a plane followed the beam, a plentiful
supply of power was available. In the event of a
plane leaving the beam, auxiliary power was provided
by a vrilol generator. Vrilol, which is a liquid by-
product of allotropic iron, possesses the property of
generating high-tension current when driven at high
pressure against gold wires. It has been known for
many centuries that high tension or static electricity
could be produced by means of high-pressure steam,
but no use had ever been made of this principle until
vrilol was discovered with its wonderful convenience
and efficient.

Occupying the control seat of the speeding plane
was Ralph Morton, his shoulder in bandages. Beside
him sat the Doctor. Lotus, Geoffrey and Kana were
reclining in the luxurious chairs in the cabin, watching
the ever-new marvel of the setting sun.

“We’re a bit early, aren’t we, Doctor?” remarked
Ralph. “You said we mustn’t reach our destination
until dark.”

“No, I think not,” said Dr. Umetaro, replying to
Ralph’s question. “We have another five hundred miles
to go and it will be dark in an hour. Night comes
with startling suddenness in these tropical regions.”

A MODERN PROMETHEUS

473

“What is our destination. Doctor?” Lotus asked.
“You promised to tell us after we left land. Please
don’t be so mysterious!”

“I’m not intentionally mysterious, Lotus San,” re-
plied the Doctor, “at least not secretive. I asked you
four to come with me on this trip because I wanted
you to receive a pleasant surprise. I will tell you now
that we are going to the headquarters of the Rebels;
the meeting place of all the greatest scientists of the
world.”

“I suspected as much,” said Geoffrey. “But you
spoke just now of five hundred miles. The only land
within that distance is Santa Lucia. Surely you don’t
mean to say that the Rebels meet under the very
noses of the Three!”

“Hardly!” smiled the Doctor. “The Rebels are
brave, but not quite as brave as that!” He would
tell them no more, but turned his attention to his
duties as navigator. Under his directions and guided
by Ralph’s hand, they hurled forward into the gathering
gloom at a steady speed of just over four hundred miles
an hour.

Once Ralph made a motion to switch on his lights,
four in number, head, tail, “ceiling” and “floor” lamps,
but the Doctor put out a restraining hand.

“We must fly in complete darkness, my dear Ralph,”
he said.

“It’s going to be rather dangerous, landing without
the floo.r-light,” Ralph commented.

“Trust to my guidance and do not worry,” the Doc-
tor replied, briefly.

They were all straining their eyes for signs of land
when the Doctor raised his hand.

“We have arrived!” he exclaimed. “Descend to five
hundred feet and hover.”

As the plane swooped down to the lower level and
hung motionless 1 in the air, they could see the reflec-
tion of the gleaming constellations below them, mir-
rored in the glassy surface of the sea. They were all
wondering whether the Doctor had made some mistake
in his calculations, but before any of the four could
put their doubts into words, the smooth water was
broken by some object which rose from the depths,
like the head of a huge marine beast rising for air.
As nearly as they could judge, this object was about
two hundred feet in diameter and perfectly circular.

T HE surface of the circle was jet black, but after
a brief interval, a small spot of light appealed
in its centre, rapidly spreading until the whole area
was dimly illuminated.

“You had better let me take the controls,” said the
Doctor, moving over into Ralph’s place.

The plane began to sink, at first swiftly and then
with decreasing speed, towards the circle of light, which
seemed to widen as they drew nearer. Now they were
able to see that what had appeared as an illuminated
surface was actually the mouth of a vertical shaft
with polished walls. Presently they found themselves
dropping down the shaft, and looking upward, could
discern a circle of black sky, dotted with stars. A
moment later there was a faint clang and their view
was cut off by a metal roof which closed the upper
end of the shaft like the closing of the iris diaphragm
in the lens of a camera.

Perhaps, had not their absorbed interest in their
novel surroundings distracted their attention, they
might have seen a tiny speck against that blue-black
sky: a speck like a watching eye hung motionless in
the heavens, hovering — hovering!

Still the plane sank slowly and they realized that
they were descending into the ■ depths of the ocean.
Looking down, they could see no bottom to the shaft,

but on raising their eyes again, a new surprise awaited
them. The roof was no further away than it had been
when it first closed.

“Look, Ralph!” exclaimed Lotus, pointing up. “The
top of the shaft is following us down!”

Her explanation was correct. The whole gigantic
shaft was telescoping upon itself and, as it were,
drawing them into the unknown abysses of the ocean.

The four friends were so absorbed in watching this
strange phenomenon that they failed to notice that
the end of their journey was at hand. There was a
slight jar and the plane came to rest.

Geoffrey opened the door of the cabin and they
stepped out into a great, circular room which was,
in fact, the bottom of the shaft. They were looking
about them, wondering what was to be the next stage
in their strange adventure, when a section of the wall
swung aside, revealing a broad archway, through
which a group of people, clad in sombre tunics, ad-
vanced towards them.

As the group drew nearer, Ralph could see that it
was composed of persons of all ages and of both sexes,
but that they were alike in displaying a certain auster-
ity of expression. Life in the Age of Social Enlighten-
ment certainly promoted universal health and happi-
ness, but the suppression of man’s natural curiosity
in scientific matters had tended to soften and beautify
the features, rather than to strengthen them. It was
in this respect that Ralph found the faces of the ap-
proaching group most attractive. They reminded him
of pictures he had seen of the great thinkers of past
ages. He realized, of course, that it was a clear case
of natural selection. Only such as possessed the cast
of mind which was revealed in the features of these
Rebels, would # voluntarily isolate themselves from their
fellow-men at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, in
order to be free to pursue their investigations un-
molested.

While these thoughts were passing through Ralph’s
mind, the group of Rebels drew near and their leader,
a finely built man of about seventy, raised his hand In
courteous salute. .

“Your wish, Ota Umetaro,” he greeted the Japanese.
“Your welcome to Eternal Calm is the greater that you
bring with you the brightest ray of hope which has
ever penetrated these depths.”

“Your wish, Frank Darwin,” answered the Doctor,
returning the salute. “It is not I who bring the light,
but this young man, Ralph Morton, whom you sent
me out to find.” He laid his arm affectionately around
Ralph’s shoulders.

“Your wish, Ralph Morton,” exclaimed the Rebel
Leader, clasping Ralph’s hand in his, while the others
clustered nearer to welcome the blushing young man
who had excelled them all in his achievements. The
Doctor introduced Geoffrey, Lotus and Kana by name,
and each one came in for a share of congratulation.

“Our friend, Dr. Umetaro has revealed very little of
your discovery, Ralph Morton,” said Darwin. “We,
with hundreds of other Rebels who are gathered to do
you honor, are hungry for details. Tonight you will
refresh yourselves and rest. Tomorrow, if it please
you, we will meet in the Crystal Chamber to learn of
your plan. Then we can decide what is best to be
done and how we can overcome the opposition and
prejudice of the Three.

A beautiful young girl, whose breastplate bore the
name Gabrielle Sabre, escorted the travelers from the
Landing Room, which they now saw was surrounded
with hangars containing many light planes, similar to
their own.

“There are visiting Rebels from Divisions all over
the world,” Gabrielle explained. “They have all come

474

AMAZING STORIES QUARTERLY

to hear the good news of your discovery. I am official
hostess for the year,” she continued. “It is my duty
and pleasure to entertain all who come.”

“You are a scientist, are you not?” asked Lotus, who
had fallen in love with the charming French girl im-
mediately.

“Biology is my specialty,” Gabrielle replied. “I am
studying the possibilities of insect education.”

“But don’t your duties interfere with your research
work?” Ralph asked.

“To some extent, but any regret I may have felt on
that score is wiped out by the honor which has come
to me tonight,” Gabrielle answered, smilingly. “Be-
sides, I have but two months more to serve. Then I
am to companion and resume my investigations. That
will be three great happinesses in one year.”

They were passing through a long corridor with many
arched doorways, through which they could catch
glimpses of laboratories, wonderfully fitted for scien-
tific work. Finally their guide led them into a small
room, which they could see was one of a suite of three
apartments. The one in which they stood was fur-
nished as a dining room and the table was laid with
six places. Adjoining it was the sleeping room and be-
yond that a curtained arch opened into a pool of clear
water.

“No doubt you will enjoy a plunge after your long
flight,” suggested their hostess. “When you return,
supper will be ready.”

When they were revelling in the delightful coolness
of the salt water, the astonishment of the three young
people at the wonders they had seen, burst forth in a
flood of questions, which threatened to drown the
Doctor. What was the exact purpose of this marvelous
submarine structure? When was it built and by whom?
How had its very existence been kept a secret from
the world? How could life be maintained in the ab-
sence of fresh air? Of what material was it con-
structed that it could withstand the tremendous pres-
sure of the water?

“My dear children,” laughed the Doctor, when he
could stem the tide of interrogations, “you had better
submit your enquiries to Gabrielle Sabre, who is far
better fitted to answer them than myself. This I can
assure you, that you have not seen one-tenth part of
the wonders of Eternal Calm.”

W HEN they were gathered at the supper table,
the Doctor opened the conversation.

“These young people have been trying to asphyxiate
me with questions, my dear Gabrielle,” he said. “Per-
haps you can satisfy their curiosity.”

“What would you like to know?” asked the girl.
“First tell us the object of this wonderful place,”
Lotus begged.

“It is the Headquarters of the Rebels,” Gabrielle ex-
plained. “Just over a hundred years ago, when the
strong prejudice against scientific work first began to
make its appearance, a little group of scientists, of
whom Frank Darwin’s father was the leader, con-
ceived the idea of founding a secret society for carry-
ing on research. The question of a retreat, where in-
vestigations could be continued unhampered, was their
first consideration. It was Erasmus Darwin — he was
a descendant of the great scientist of the nineteenth
century — who proposed the establishment of a settle-
ment at the bottom of the sea. This spot was selected
on account of the suitable nature of the ocean floor,
because of its being off the regular air-lanes, and also
because of its nearness to Santa Lucia, the Island of
the Three.”

“A bold stroke of policy,” commented the Doctor.
“The Three would hardly expect to find men and women

carrying on the forbidden work under their very noses.”
“Eternal Calm, as we call the building, was the work
of many years,” Gabrielle continued. “In fact it is be-
ing continually enlarged, as our increasing member-
ship demands.”

“I should have thought,” remarked the practical
Geoffrey, “that a structure w'hich had to withstand such
enormous pressure would have to be built as a unit
and then lowered into place.”

“On the contrary,” replied their hostess, “it was far
simpler to make small sections and unite them on the
site of the city. Have you noticed the shape of all the
rooms?”

They had, in fact, been struck by this feature, but
had supposed that it was part of an unusual architec-
tural design.

“The whole city is built up of hollow polyhedrons of
various sizes. This shape gives the maximum re-
sistance to pressure with the minimum weight, if w'e
exclude the sphere which, for obvious reasons, is im-
practicable. These many sided rooms are cast in one
piece of gold-iridium-steel at a secret foundry in the
center of Greenland. From there they are brought at
night by fleets of planes and dropped into the sea.
They are made of such thickness and volume that they
are only slightly heavier than sea-water. Thus their
weight under water is practically nothing. It is a
simple matter for divers, working in specially con-
structed machines, to bring the various segments into
contact and to weld them together electrically. As soon
as the welding is complete, openings are cut between
the various rooms by means of the oxyhydrogen flame.”
“What puzzles me even more than the City itself,”
Lotus said, “is the fact that its existence has been kept
an absolute secret for so many years.”

“Ah! That is because you do not know its history,”
interposed the Doctor. “You imagine the secret to be
in the hands of all the Rebels and that in the course
of time some traitor would be sure to reveal what he
knows. Explain our method, Gabrielle.”

“The reason why the secret of Eternal Calm has been
kept inviolate,” said the girl, “is because it is known
to no one. Neither I nor Dr. Umetaro nor any of the
Rebels knows the exact location of the City.” '

“I don’t quite understand,” said Ralph. “You say
no one knows the location of the City, yet the Doctor
was able to come directly here.”

“I said that no one knew the secret,” Gabrielle ex-
plained. “I did not say no thing!”

“But how can a thing keep a secret?” Ralph ejacu-
lated, “and what thing?”

“It is as simple as it is wonderful,” explained their
hostess. “There is a substance called centrion which
Erasmus Darwin discovered, though whether he found
it in the form of a natural mineral or whether he
created it from other materials we do not know, for it
defies analysis. The peculiar property of this centrion
is the affinity which its parts possess for one another.
This attraction is not physical, that is to say it is not
tangible to the ordinary senses. It seems to act in
some way upon the human nervous system.

“Darwin made or found a large mass of centrion,
from which he cut twelve tiny pieces. Each of these
pieces is mounted like a jewel in a ring, but in such a
way that the surface of the stone touches the finger of
the wearer. As long as the ring is worn, the wearer
feels an irresistible urge in the direction of the parent
mass of centrion. We call these rings the Pathfinders.”
“But surely it would be quite simple to locate the
Eternal Calm by surveying,” demurred Lotus. “What
is to prevent any one of the Rebels from taking bear-
ings by the stars?”

“There are two things,” elucidated Gabrielle. “One

A MODERN PROMETHEUS

$75

is that the Pathfinders are entrusted only to Rebels of
unquestioned integrity, like your friend Dr. Uraetaro.
The other is that no one enters or leaves Eternal Calm
by himself.”

“I think I understand,” said Ralph, thoughtfully.
“You have all promised not to know the site of the
City; not to try to determine its location. There is not
one chance in a thousand that one of you will prove un-
faithful, but to guard against such a possibility, you
go in and out in groups — one watching another. How
simple and yet how effective. Still — I don’t quite un-
derstand.”

The Doctor regarded Ralph with an amused smile.

“You don’t understand why I was permitted to enter
without a companion Rebel,” he said. “Why, my dear
friend, there were at least two Rebels in the plane
with me!”

“You mean — ” commenced Ralph, doubtfully.

“Yourself and Geoffrey, of course,” the Doctor cried.
“The requirements for membership in the Rebels are
mental requirements, a scientific type of mind. We have
no promises or cumbersome rules. Our method of
sending forth the Pathfinders is a wise tradition, noth-
ing more. It was enough for me that you were scien-
tists and — my friends.”

“Thank the All Wise!” exclaimed Gabrielle. “If your
hopes come true, the need for secrecy will soon be a
thing of the past. But I forget my duties as hostess,”
she continued, rising and slipping her arm around the
other girl. “Your Lotus blossom droops for weariness,
Ralph Morton. Come, let us sleep!”

So they slept in Eternal Calm with the surface of
the sea, now tossing restlessly in a freshening breeze,
five thousand feet above them. And through the long
night, that watching eye hung motionless in the
heavens, hovering — hovering!

CHAPTER XII.

The Crystal Chamber

N EXT morning, if such a word can he used of a
place where day and night are eternally the
same, Ralph woke clear-eyed and refreshed, to
find the others already up.

Gabrielle greeted them at the breakfast table, after
their swim, and explained the programme for the day.

“Frank Darwin wishes you to see some of the won-
ders of Eternal Calm,” she explained, “so he has called
the meeting in the Assembly Room for this afternoon,
at 2 o’clock. After breakfast, if it will please you, we
will visit some of the laboratories.”

“That will be splendid!” Ralph exclaimed. “You
can’t realize what a wonderful thing it is, Gabrielle, to
find a place where science can be worshipped openly.
At least it seems so to us, after all these years of play-
ing hole-and-corner. Isn’t that so, Geoff?”

“I fear that you will not find many of the worshippers
at their devotions today,” Gabrielle smiled. “You see,
we have dropped our regular work to concentrate our
energies on the Great Problem, as we call the iron dis-
ease. When news of your discovery arrived, the need
for further research was removed and we felt unable to
go back to our own work until we had heard your
report, Ralph. Shall we go?”

Guided by Gabrielle Sabre the little party passed
through innumerable many-sided rooms, while Dr. Ume-
taro kept up a running fire of comments. To describe
the equipment of the laboratories would be to write a
catalogue of every scientific instrument known to the
Twentieth Century, with countless others which would
have been unfamiliar and even meaningless to the sa-
vants of that age.

In one series of huge rooms were samples of all the
discoveries and inventions which had been perfected by
the Rebels in their secret retreat. Here they could look
upon the accomplishments of two hundred years, lying
idle until the coming of an age less bigoted than the
present, when they would burst forth to usher in an
era of material progress such as the world had never
seen.

Ralph and Geoffrey were enchanted and even Lotus,
to whom much of the scientific equipment was hidden in
mystery, felt her sense of the romantic awaken at the
sight of all these motionless machines.

“Here is a plane invented by Tanaka Kitana, a fellow
countryman of mine,” explained the Doctor, directing
their attention to a slender structure of shining metal
and glistening glass.

“Where are the wings?” demanded Geoffrey.

“There are none,” elucidated the Doctor. “I call it a
plane for lack of a better word, but it is equally at home
in any of the three elements. It is sustained and pro-
pelled by means of inductive action. A system of coils,
surprisingly simple considering what they accomplish,
draws power from the beams and then acts repulsively
upon the earth in any desired direction,”

“Has it been tried out?” Ralph asked.

“Oh, yes!” answered the Doctor. “We have a simi-
lar one which we use for special errands at night. Only
last year I used it to deliver some papers of importance
to a Rebel Astronomer in the Andes. After I had car-
ried out my instructions, I thought I would see what the
machine would do, so I rose to ninety miles and circled
the world. I did it in just under forty minutes!”

“Forty minutes!” Lotus gasped. “But, Doctor, that
is nearly forty thousand miles an hour.”

“I see that you are good at rapid calculations,”
smiled the Doctor. “Yes, that was the speed. It got
uncomfortably hot, due to the friction of the air, even at
that altitude, but I dared not go higher lest I run
into meteorites.”

Ralph and Geoffrey felt that they could have spent
hours in studying the contents of this marvelous mu-
seum, but Dr. Umetaro would not permit them to stay
for more than a few minutes.

“You have all your lives before you,” he said, “Now,
I want you to see our observatory.”

“An observatory, a mile under water!” exclaimed
Geoffrey.

“You will see!” smiled the Doctor. “Indeed, we have
an observatory; a unique one, have we not, Gabrielle
Sabre?”

They passed through a doorway into a small room,
the walls of which were unlike any part of Eternal
Calm which they had seen. The many-sided blocks
were absent and the room was a simple dome, con-
structed apparently of some highly polished black metal.

Ralph looked in vain for any sign of a telescope or
other apparatus which should be found in an astronomi-
cal observatory. The total contents of the room com-
prised half a dozen comfortable chairs and several metal
standards bearing upon their upper ends objects which
resembled reflectors, as indeed they were.

Gabrielle Sabre requested her guests to be seated
and extinguished the single luxifer panel above the door.
The room was plunged in darkness, which, in a few
moments, gave place to a faint bluish glow. Slowly the
mysterious radiance grew stronger, became endowed
with movement, life. Ghostly shadows flitted back and
forth, weaving and blending in patternless dances.

Suddenly the dome flashed into full brilliance. Lotus
gave a little cry of dismay and shrank closer to -Ralph.
They were in the heart of a jewel, a sapphire of incon-
ceivable transparency and fire, a mighty cerulean crys-
tal peopled by Beings which gaped and goggled with

476

AMAZING STORIES QUARTERLY

jaws and eyes whose devilish hideousness was partly
offset by hues which rivalled the rainbow.

Dr. Umetaro’s voice broke the silence.

“What do you think of our observatory, my friends ?
Here we come to watch the finny tribes with whom we
share the seclusion of the ocean floor. The dome is
allotropic iron, ten feet thick and more transparent than
the finest glass. The reflectors flooded the waters with
light for hundreds of yards. We never lack for enter-
tainment or study, since the radiance attracts fish of all
varieties, as a magnet attracts steel.”

T IME ceased to exist for the four friends as they
sat, wrapped in wonder, watching the ever-changing
drama of life in the depths. Men have entertained the
belief that the flowers were created to please their sense
of beauty, but here were living blossoms upon which
Nature had lavished her most gorgeous hues, where no
ray of light could come to kindle them into visibility
and where, save for the Rebel scientists, no human eye
would ever enjoy them.

Here, a flock of tiny fishes, carmine shading into rose
and splashed with glittering silver, fled . before some
invisible enemy and hurled themselves against the outer
surface of the transparent globe whose curvature caused
them to spread in all directions, like living sparks of
fire from a rocket. Swimming with leisurely swiftness
came the pursuer, a nightmare goblin of blue and gold,
jaws bristling with a triple row of teeth like needles,
protruding eyes of unblinking cruelty set close together
in front of a grotesque, misshapen head.

Balked of its prey, or perhaps distracted by the bril-
liance of the reflectors, the six-foot monster paused to
inspect its human watchers. As it hung there, intent,
motionless save for the slow pulsation of fins and tail, a
shadowy something darted out of the gloom with incred-
ible speed and touched the side of the golden fish. In-
stantly the passive immobility was changed into a tur-
moil of struggle. In the light from the reflectors, the
shadowy something materialized into a writhing, fleshy
arm, studded with suckers and fully fifty feet in length.

In vain the golden goblin dashed itself hither and
thither in hopeless endeavour to evade impending death.
Another and yet another of the dreadful tentacles flicked
out of the obscurity and fastened upon the doomed mon-
ster. Now the whole mass of the attacker was revealed
in all its bestial ugliness. A bloated globe of flesh for a
body, like a bladder distended with blood. A circle of
tentacles, each as thick as a man’s body. A segmented
beak like a parrot’s, each segment as large as an ele-
phant’s tusk and keen as a razor.

The implacable tentacles drew inward, and with a
thrill of horror, the watchers saw the golden goblin
drawn to that snapping beak. In a few 7 seconds the
drama of Life and Death was over. The last golden frag-
ment disappeared into the hungry maw and the mon-
strous squid withdrew into the shadows from which it
had emerged.

Lotus was trembling with disgust and even Ralph and
Geoffrey were sickened by what they had witnessed.
Seeing their emotion, Gabrielle extinguished the flood-
lights. They were once more in the little room of pol-
ished black metal.

“That is a performance of which we are always as-
sured,” commented the Doctor. “Soon after the observa-
tory was constructed, that fellow took up his abode
among some rocks close by. Whether it was instinct
or intelligence I do not know, but he discovered that the
light from the reflectors was a guarantee of a good
meal. He is never satisfied with small fry. He waits
for the appeai’anee of a fish which will satisfy his hun-
ger. Then he strikes. He has been there for over a
century!”

“I’ve read of these giant devilfish,” Geoffrey said.
“In olden days, sailors called them sea-snakes.”

“Sea Serpents, you mean, Geoff,” corrected Ralph.

“Yes, there were legends in the old days of sailing
vessels, but it was not until some time in the nineteenth
or twentieth century that the truth of the legends was
proved by the finding of a dead polyp on the sands,
somewhere in the Gulf of Mexico. Am I right, Doctor?”

“I believe so,” replied the Japanese. “However, Ga-
brielle Sabre is a much higher authority on these mat-
ters than I. Perhaps she can enlighten you.”

“I think Lotus has seen and heard enough about our
deep sea friends,” said their hostess, smiling at the
other girl understandingly. “Let us return to our apart-
ments. When we have rested and enjoyed some refresh-
ments, it will be time for Ralph Morton to meet the
Rebels.”

Two hours later, Frank Darwin entered the room in
which the visitors were conversing after luncheon and
raised his hand in salutation.

“Your wish, Ralph Morton! Your wish, Friends!”
he greeted them. “The Rebels await your pleasure in
the Crystal Chamber.”

As Ralph followed the Rebel President through the
corridors, he was conscious of mingled sensations of
pride and fear. He was only a young man; young in
years and very young in knowledge compared to the
body of scientists which he was about to face. In the
ecstasy of his discovery, failure had seemed impossible.
During the journey to the City of Eternal Calm, the
exaltation of his spirit was sustained by the enthusiasm
of his friends. But now, when his proposal was to be
submitted to the touchstone of the accumulated Scientific
wisdom of centuries, his heart failed him and his plans
seemed w'ild and impossible.

Something of his thoughts mu3t have been apparent
in his features, for he felt a soft hand slipped into his
and heard Lotus whisper, “Courage, dear!”

Then he was aware of a great blaze of light and
raised his head to find himself standing in the arched
entrance to the most marvelous room he had ever seen.

Well was it named the Crystal Chamber! Octagonal
in shape and fully two hundred feet across, the domed
ceiling was studded with countless thousands of jewels,
whose facets glowed with polychromatic radiance. The
colors were not fixed but changed constantly. Waves of
rose and azure and ivory flowed and rippled and blended
with whirling spirals of violet and emerald green. This
might have been the paradise of the flowers, where the
souls of the dying blossoms had come to mingle in an
eternal dance.

Ralph wrenched his gaze from the glamorous beauty
of that mighty dome and looked around him. He was
facing a great crescent of terraced seats, filled with a
multitude of men and women, all clad alike in the som-
bre brown tunics and breeches which were the custom-
ary costume of the scientists. Darwin slipped one arm
around his shoulders and urged him forward a few
steps in advance of the rest of the little party.

As though Darwin’s action were a signal, the entire
concourse surged to its feet and burst into a roar of
welcome.

“Your wish, Ralph Morton!”

Slowly the whirlpool of colored light began to fade.
Dimmer and dimmer grew the glory of those luminous
crystals until only a faint pearly glow diffused itself
through the great chamber. Ralph took another step
forward and withdrew his hand from the folds of his
tunic. A gasp of wonder went out as he raised above
his head the tiny bar of florium. Its ghostly purple
radiance seemed to shine with the promise of secret
power, of unrevealed mysteries.

Ralph’s courage returned and he began to speak.

A MODERN PROMETHEUS 477

W HEN Ralph Morton concluded his brief address,
there was no repetition of the enthusiasm
which had greeted his entrance. The assemblage waited
in silence as the light flowed back into the crystal dome
and the blackness of despair enfolded the young scien-
tist. He had failed to convince them! Florium was
nothing but a foolish dream; a vapor dissipated in the
cold wind of superior knowledge.

A little group detached itself from the silent audience
and approached him. Half a dozen grave-faced men
and women, led by a white haired giant who took from
Ralph’s nerveless hand the little bar of florium. Si-
lently the glowing wand was passed from one to another.
When all had examined it, the aged giant turned to the
assemblage.

“Friends!” he said, his low voice throbbing with emo-
tion, “eighty years ago today I entered Eternal Calm.
For eighty years I have probed the secrets of that
mysterious fluid we call electricity, the fluid which is
the framework of all created things. It has remained
for this young man to reveal a secret greater than any
of which we have knowledge.

“The world is in need. If the metal which has been
called florium in honor of this fair girl, actually pos-
sesses the properties which Ralph Morton states, it will
fill the great need of the world today. There is no rea-
son to doubt the efficacy of florium. Its powers have
been witnessed by our friend Dr. Umetaro, whom you all
know. It remains only to convince the Board of Con-
trol that the time has come to cast aside the bigoted
prejudices of centuries and permit science to come into
her own again. Once this permission is obtained, the
lost iron, which is the life blood of civilization, will be
restored.

“Nor will this be the sole result of Ralph Morton’s
discovery. Once the barriers are broken down, science
will again be free to shed her countless blessings upon
mankind. Ralph Morton, in the name of the Rebels, I
thank you!”

Then indeed the silence was broken. Shouting for
joy, the Rebels crowded forward to shake Ralph’s hand
and to congratulate him. It was long before any sem-
blance of order could be restored.

When at last Darwin was able to make himself heal'd,
his voice rose above the turmoil of excitement.

“Friends! Friends!” he cried. “In the delirium of
our joy, do not let us forget that we still face an almost
insuperable difficulty. We have to overcome the bastions
of human prejudice and inertia. Whom shall we send
to the Three?”

“Ralph Morton! Ralph Morton!” shouted a hundred
voices.

“You have heard, Ralph Morton,” Darwin said. “The
danger is great. You may be exiled or even imprisoned
as a heretic. Perhaps we ask too much from one who
has already given so generously. Will you go?”

“Of course I will go!” accepted Ralph, without hesi-
tation. “Alone? Perhaps that will be best. If I fail,
another can try.”

“No, you shall not go alone, Ralph Morton,” said Dar-
win. “You shall choose your own companions. There
is not a Rebel who would not gladly face worse than
imprisonment for the Cause.”

“You will come, will you not, Geoff?” Ralph asked,
turning to his friend.

He looked for instant acquiescence. To his astonish-
ment, the blond Vulcan, the very embodiment of fear-
lessness, cringed and threw up one hand, as though he
had been struck.

“I cannot! I dare not!” he muttered, his scarred face
ghastly white. “Ask me anything — my life if you will
— but not that ! I dare not do what you ask !”

Before Ralph could protest, Kana interposed.

“Will Kana serve in Geoffrey Von Elmar’s stead?” he
asked. “I have a debt to pay.”

“I shall be glad to have you, Kana,” Ralph said heart-
ily, “not because of any fancied debt, for I know of
none, but because I trust you.”

“We three will go,” suggested Dr. Umetaro. “Ralph
Morton as the messenger, Kana as the guardian, and I
to pilot the plane, for we will take Kitana’s machine.
If we have not returned in three days, you will know
that we have failed. Geoffrey will stay to watch over
Lotus San and to hold the secret of the florium ore
bed.”

“Do not worry,” said Kana, confidently. “We shall
not fail. Kana scents success in the air and Kana
knows ! He is changed, but he is still a Zulu.”

CHAPTER XIII

The Place of the Three

I T was the hour before the dawn. Black night brooded
over the tossing ocean, but the great entrance cham-
ber to the City of Eternal Calm, five thousand feet
below, was flooded with light.

Hundreds of silent, brown-clad figures lined the cir-
cular walls. The Rebels had come to bid Godspeed to
the dauntless three who were about to set forth upon an
errand, the success of which meant so much to the cause
they loved — the cause of science.

At the centre of the floor, immediately below the
sliding, watertight doors of the telescopic shaft, rested
the flier which was to take them to Santa Lucia, the
island of the Three. A slender cylinder of burnished
silver, with graceful, pointed ends, the flier showed ab-
solutely no external evidence of mechanism. No driv-
ing screws or supporting wings broke the glistening
curves. It seemed the embodiment of speed; but lack-
ing the means of propulsion.

Ralph Morton, Dr. Umetaro and Kana stood beside
the flier, saying their last farewells to a little group
which included Lotus, Geoffrey, President Darwin, Ga-
brielle Sabre and the snowy-haired electrical engineer,
Olaf Ericsson.

Ralph took advantage of a conversation between Erics-
son and the Doctor, in which the others were absorbed,
to draw Lotus aside.

“Do not worry, my Beloved,” he whispered. “It will
all be over in twenty-four hours. Either we shall per-
suade the Board of Control to give science a chance or
we shall fail. Even if we do fail, I am sure that the
Three will not punish us; at least not severely. After
all, we are risking our freedom to help the world. In
justice they can hardly be very harsh with us, even if
they look upon us as heretics.”

Characteristically, Lotus passpd over Ralph’s argu-
ments and went back to his first words.

“I am not worrying, my Ralph,” she assured him with
a smile whose radiance gave evidence that she spoke the
truth. “I am not a psychic, like Kana, but I am a
woman. I know that you will succeed. Don’t ask me
how. I simply know.”

“Yes, you are a woman, darling. My woman,” he
said softly, putting his arm around her. “You allow
your love to control your judgment.”

Lotus rubbed her cheek against his shoulder and
laughed.

“You will see!” was all she would say.

“I wish Geoff was coming,” Ralph said in a troubled
voice. “I don’t understand his attitude at all. I should
have said that he would be the last man in the world to
show the white feather.”

Lotus laughed again, a little ripple of amusement.
“You don’t know your friend as well as I do, dearest.

478

AMAZING STORIES QUARTERLY

Ericsson concluded his conversation with the Japa-
nese doctor and the latter beckoned to Ralph.

“It is time we were on our way, Mr. Morton. We
must leave Eternal Calm before any ray of light can
reveal its presence to passing planes. Good-bye, Mr.
Darwin. Good-bye, friends.”

As Ralph kissed his companion, her eyes smiled up
into his with an expression of such complete confidence
that he followed the Doctor into the entrance of the flier
almost light-heartedly. Something of Lotus’ assurance
communicated itself to his handshake with Geoffrey
and his hearty, “Good-bye, old fellow. Get your plans
ready for the florium mine. We’ll be back this time
tomorrow with carte blanche from the Three!”

Dr. Umetaro touched a switch and the door slid si-
lently into place. For a moment they were in darkness
and then panels slid back revealing heavy ferrover win-
dows above, below and on both sides.

Glancing upward, Ralph saw that the roof of the
shaft was rising. The mighty telescope was extending
itself against the pressure of the water — a pressure of

Ralph had. one glimpse of the faintly luminous
mouth of the shaft, which was girdled with a
wreath of foam.

I am perfectly certain — as certain as if he had told me
with his own lips — that Geoffrey Von Elmar has some
good reason for not going with you. There is some-
thing which makes him feel that his presence would be
dangerous, not to himself, but to your mission. Did you
see how the scar flamed on his poor face? I know Geoff
well enough to have noticed that that is not a sign of
fear within him, but of anger or excitement. Tell me,
Ralph, how did he get that injury?”

“He never told me, my own. As you know, we were
at college together. At the end of our fifth year, he
went away for the summer holidays without telling me
where he was going. When he returned, his face bore
that awful scar. He declined to say what had happened
and neither of us had mentioned if since.”

A MODERN PROMETHEUS 379

nearly two hundred tons on every square foot of its sur-
face. The Doctor turned a control knob and the flier
lifted smoothly from the floor and began to follow the
moving roof.

There was no beat of engines or whirr of mechanism.
Supported upon a yielding column of electrical force,
they floated upward as lightly as a ferroloid ball on a
fountain. Far below, Ralph could see a fantastic mosaic,
hundreds of white faces upturned and in their midst a
flash of azure blue as Lotus snatched off her tunic and
waved it in a last farewell.

The crowded entrance chamber drew together rapidly
to a vanishing point and Ralph could see nothing but
the polished walls of the shaft, which seemed to be
rushing down into the abyss. In a few moments the
movement slowed, then ceased, and he was aware of a
curious, irregular thudding noise.

“Stormy weather up here,” the Doctor observed
“Well, that will do no harm. Rather it will reduce the
chances of a stray plane catching sight of us.”

The great iris diaphragm which closed the upper end
of the shaft, swung open, revealing a circle of inky
blackness across which flew spatters of spume in the
grasp of a howling gale. The Doctor touched the con-
trols and they shot up into the night. Ralph had one
glimpse of the faintly luminous mouth of the shaft,
girdled with a wreath of foam. Then the diaphragm
closed and the ocean once more hid the secret of the
City of Eternal Calm.

The Doctor allowed the flier to rise to a height of
about a thousand feet above the sea and then, glancing
at the compass, prepared to set his course for Santa
Lucia. He explained to the others that it might be
necessary to wait until daylight before landing, as he
did not know the exact location of Eternal Calm. The
Pathfinder which he wore upon his finger, was useful
for finding their way back. It could not help them to
reach Santa Lucia or any other point on the surface of
the globe. They must fly blind and trust to observa-
tions after daylight.

The Doctor was about to make some further remarks,
when Kana gave a cry and pointed dowmvard through
the floor panel. Far below Ralph saw a disc of light,
intensely brilliant, in which the tossing waves were re-
vealed with stereoscopic vividness. For a moment he
thought that the entrance to Eternal Calm had been
reopened. Then the radiant circle began to move in a
rapidly widening spiral and he realized that it was
caused by a beam of light falling upon the sea from
above.

“I anticipated something of this sort,” remarked the
Doctor, calmly. “Hold tight, gentlemen!”

Suddenly the nose of the flier dipped downward at
an angle of fifty degrees or more. The Doctor touched
a switch, shutting off the current in the repelling coils,
and the flier fell like a meteor towards the ocean. As
Ralph clung in breathess nausea to his seat, he caught
a fleeting glimpse of that whirling spot of light. It
rushed towards them, touched, hovered, bathed them in
its ghastly white rays. Then the needle-sharp nose of
the falling flier cleft the water almost without impact.

Next moment there was a tremendous, jarring shock,
followed by the roar of an explosion. All three men
were hurled from their seats to the floor, while the flier
quivered as though in agony.

W HEN Ralph picked himself up, to find no bones
broken, Dr. Umetaro was already at the controls.
Through the windows, Ralph could see the water rush-
ing by with incredible speed. Then the panels slid over
and shut off the sight.

“By the Three!” he exclaimed. “What was that?”

“A message from Clifford Weatherby,” grunted Kana,
staunching the blood from a cut in his cheek.

“From Weatherby?” repeated Ralph. “How do
you know?”

“I know his methods,” responded the negro. “I’ve
been conscious of his presence ever since we entered
Eternal Calm. I thought he would try to get us when
we left.”

“One must acknowledge that our friend Weatherby
is persistent,” remarked the Doctor over his shoulder,
“but his style is somewhat crude. Depth bombs went
out of use several centuries ago. He should have con-
sulted the Rebels. They have perfected a form of oscil-
latory current — a kind of ray — which would have turned
the flier and us with it into gas, in a fraction of a sec-
ond. Of course, the Rebels did not design the ray for
any such purpose. It is intended for civil engineering
work; mining, tunnels, canals and that sort of thing.”

For an hour the silver needle fled towards the south-
east. Five hundred feet below the surface, the three
men were safe from the hatred of Weatherby and his
followers. Conversation languished and there was a
long silence, save for the shrill hiss made by the flier as
it sped through the water.

At last, the Doctor placed his tiny radio wrist watch
to his ear.

“Five o’clock,” he announced. “We’ll go up now.
We’ve come three hundred miles from Eternal Calm and
Weatherby dare not trouble us by daylight, even if he
could find us.”

A touch on the controls and the nose of the flier
tilted up at a sharp angle. The Doctor switched off the
interior lighting and slid open the window panels. For
a few seconds they were wrapped in profound darkness.
Then came a faint glimmer of bluish green growing
rapidly stronger and culminating with startling sudden-
ness in a burst of sunshine as the flier leaped from
ocean to air, shaking from its glittering sides a shower
of sparkling spray and leaving a pattern of concentric
ripples to mark, for a few brief seconds, the spot whence
it came.

Freed from the retarding friction of the denser ele-
ment, the flier shot upwards with constantly accelerated
velocity. Ralph could only guess at their speed, but he
knew that it must be far in excess of anything he had
experienced, for, looking downward, he could actually
see the bounding circle of the horizon widening.

“Look up!” advised the Doctor.

Ralph turned his eyes to the upper windows and gave
a gasp of amazement. The sky was no longer azure
blue, but a deep blue-black and studded with stars whose
number and steady lustre were much greater than the
heavenly orbs when viewed from the surface of the
earth. Low in the east hung the sun, a globe of intoler-
able brilliancy, surrounded with a girdle of crimson
flames.

“Eighty-five miles,” remarked the Doctor, pressing a
switch. “High enough, I think. We’re practically out
of the atmosphere. What do you think of our stellar
universe now, gentlemen?”

Ralph was searching his mind for a reply which would
not seem futile in the face of this glorious display when
Kana, who had been standing motionless at one of the
windows, suddenly flung himself prostrate on the floor,
uttering broken, unintelligible phrases in the Zulu
tongue. Presently he raised himself and spoke in
English.

“Indeed, indeed Kana owes a debt he can never pay!”
he exclaimed, as though unconscious of the others’ pres-
ence. “Ambition — power — wealth ! What puny things,
when the All Wise has vouchsafed Kana one glimpse of
His splendor!”

480

AMAZING STORIES QUARTERLY

Ralph’s emotions were too deep to permit of speech.
He reached out his hands and clasped those of Kana
and the Doctor. At last the latter broke the silence
with a sigh.

“Weif\ust return,” he said. “It is too dangerous up
here without the air to shield us from the artillery of
heaven. Look, there is our destination !”

He pointed down to where a chain of emerald beads
broke the blue convexity of the ocean.

“Santa Lucia, The Island of the Three,” said the
Doctor and turned the nose of the flier to the east.

In half an hour they were hovering above a grove of
stately cabbage palms, beyond which a line of creamy
surf kissed a beach of golden sand. There was no sign
of human habitation and the Doctor dropped the flier
gently to the ground in an open space among the trees.
The three men stepped out upon a sward of green velvet.
Great sheaves of spotted orchids hung pendant from the
branches of a towering cinnamon. Masses of mauve
bougainvillea afforded harborage for butterflies of in-
credible. wing-spread and every conceivable hue. Far
away were purple hills and over all arched the blue
dome, flecked with fleecy cloudlets.

“Centuries ago men called them the Summer Isles!
Surely the name was a happy choice,” philosophized the
Doctor. “Well, my friends, our task is before us. Let
us face it.”

From a pocket of his tunic he produced three jew-
elled name-plates and handing one to each of the others,
bid them substitute them for the ones they wore on
their throat chains. Glancing at his wonderingly, Ralph
found that it bore .the name “Prometheus.” Kana’s was
inscribed “Enceladus” and that of the Doctor “.ZEscu-
lapius.”

“A fanciful notion of Frank Darwin’s,” explained Dr.
Umetaro, smiling at Ralph’s puzzled expression. “He
thought it wise that we should interview the Three
incognito. Do you not think the names are appro-
priate ?

“Oh ! Quite so,” Ralph acknowledged. “A bit flatter-
ing in my case!” And if he blushed and seemed agi-
tated, the Doctor attributed his evident emotion to mod-
esty, or possibly to a natural dislike of masquerading
under false colors.

“Let us be on our way,” advised the Doctor. “I chose
this place for our landing lest the sight of the strange
flier might cause alarm. The Place of the Three is five
miles from here, in the hills. We will walk.”

They started on the final stage of their fateful jour-
ney, Kana carrying a metal case about a foot square.
Soon they emerged from the trees and followed a wind-
ing foot-road, bordered with luxuriant vegetation. Here
and there they passed thatched cottages with bamboo
walls, surrounded by gardens in which grew tropical
flowers and shrubs in great profusion. The universal
spread of civilization and culture had not altered the
mode of life in these happy islands. These simple cot-
tages were cool and comfortable. What more could be
desired? Only the senseless spirit of emulation which
caused so much heart-burning and poverty in the old
days could have prompted a wish for change.

T HE road wound its way towards the uplands and
finally, after an hour’s walk, brought them to a
gently rolling plateau. Here the sight that met Ralph’s
eyes caused his thoughts to turn to Boecacio and the
gardens of Italy. Serene-faced men and women wan-
dered among a riot of blossoms or reposed on cushioned
scats in the shade of mighty ebony and teak trees.
Through openings in the foliage one caught vistas of
graceful dwellings. On a slight rise in the centre stood
a magnificent building of ivory and crimson ferrolith,

its slender, fluted columns and sculptured architrave
displayed the exquisite charm of modern architecture
at its best and noblest.

It was the Place of the Three, the seat of the Board
of Control, the centre of Government for a whole
planet.

Seeing that they were strangers, a pleasant featured
young man approached them and bowed courteously.

“Your wish, friends,” he accosted them, smilingly.
“How can I serve you? Are you visitors of pleasure,
or have you business with the Board?”

“We wish for audience with the Three,” explained
Ralph. “Our business is urgent.”

“The Three are the Servants of the World,” stated the
young man sententiously, as though he were quoting a
ritual. “Just at present, however, they are exceedingly
busy with this storage of ore in Antarctica. A rather
terrible thing has happened, you know. Perhaps you
have heard. The ore dumps on the ice have become in-
fected with the disease. It looks as if matters were
approaching a crisis.”

“As a matter of fact, our business concerns the iron
supply,” Ralph said. “We have a report to make.”
“You are mine superintendents, perhaps,” suggested

the other. “I don’t remember your faces or ” he

hesitated, his eyes on Ralph’s breast, “your names.”

“We are not connected with the mines,” Dr. Umetaro
interposed. “Nevertheless, we have certain suggestions
to make which may be of benefit. We have come a long
way, and greatly desire an audience with the Three.”
“You must be weary,” sympathized the young man.
“Come with me and I will see that you have rest and
refreshment. Where is your plane?”

“Not being familiar with the island, we left the plane
by the sea shore,” explained Ralph, as they accompanied
their new friend towards a small building which glowed
like a garnet among the trees. “We walked from there,
so breakfast would be most welcome.”

“This is my home,” volunteered the guide, whose
name-plate bore the words Tsen Sheng. “Perhaps you
will graciously accept my hospitality during your stay.”
They entered a circular court, open to the sky and
with a fountain playing in the centre, and were greeted
by Tsen Ling, their host’s companion.

“While you breakfast, I will interview the Three,”
Tsen Sheng said. “I am one of the Secretaries to the
Board and will endeavour to arrange an audience. Of
course, the Three are the Servants of the World, but
they are indeed very busy. Nevertheless, I will do what
I can. Let me see; the names,” and he pulled out his
tablets. “P-R-O-Prometheus. Is that correct? And the
others. Forgive me, but I don’t think I have ever seen
names quite like them. The A and the E joined together!
Quite unusual, is it not?”

A touch from the Doctor restrained Ralph from speak-
ing and the bland little Chinese secretary hurried away
on his errand, leaving his guests to the ministrations of
his charming, yellow skinned companion.

An hour later Tsen Sheng bustled in, smiling more
cheerfully than ever.

“The Three will grant an audience,” he announced.
“As I told you, the Three are the Servants of the World.
They will meet you in the Palm Grove this evening at
sunset. We are fortunate, are we not, my Delight?” he
said, beaming at Tsen Ling. “Our friends will be able
to remain with us until nightfall. When they have
rested, we must show them our beauty spots, although
the Place of the Three is all so delectable that it is hard
to pick out one spot which exceeds any other in love-
liness.”

Escorted by the cheery Chinese couple, the three
friends spent, the day wandering through a Paradise

A MODERN PROMETHEUS

481

on earth. Dr. Umetaro and Kana possessed the happy
faculty of being able to detach their minds from worry
and both enjoyed themselves to the full, but Ralph’s
nerves were in a tremor of excitement and it was with
intense relief that he heard Tsen Sheng announce that
it was time to return for the evening meal, after which
they would go to meet the Three.

The sun was setting over a sea of sapphire glass as
they left Tsen’s home and followed the secretary along a
winding pathway bordered with Hibiscus and Oleander,
from which they emerged into a grove of graceful
Crown Palms. A short distance away was a cluster of
seats. Three figures rose as they approached and Ralph’s
heart leaped and then sank as he recognized the big
Irishman, Hector Shawn, the dignified Hindoo, Kanzo
Singh, and the svelte French woman, Felice Mincheau.

“Your wish, friends ! How can we serve you?’’ boomed
Shawm’s deep voice.

They were in the presence of the Three
CHAPTER XIV
Kana Pays His Debt

T HE Three resumed their seats and waited with
grave, attentive faces for their visitors to speak.
Ralph hesitated, appalled at the realization that
upon his shoulders rested the hopes of all those earnest,
brown-clad men and women, far away beneath the At-
lantic. It was not sufficient that he had made, almost
by accident, a discovery fit to rank with the greatest in
scientific history; a thousand others had done as much
or more.

No, the discovery of florium was a means to an end.
It devolved upon him to demonstrate the properties of
this mystery metal so convincingly that the Three would
be forced to acknowledge the supremacy of science;
would lift the ban from the practice of research and
pave the way for a new era of material progress. Who
was he, a man still in his early youth, that he should
dare to hope for success in a combat with the prejudices
of centuries?

These thoughts flitted across the background of
Ralph’s mind. In the meantime the Three sat silent,
gravely attentive; the giant, Shawn, with his piercing
black eyes and cloven chin; the austere philosopher,
Kanzo Singh, erect and dignified; the gentle Felice,
with an expression of disarming sweetness, beneath
which hovered a hint of the unswerving will and unfal-
tering sense of logic, which had won her a place as one
of the joint rulers of the globe.

Ralph tried in vain to marshal his forces, to muster
the arguments he had conned over so many times in
the past few days. He glanced despairingly at Kana
and the Doctor, but his two friends stood with down-
cast eyes. They felt instinctively that the time had
come for Ralph to take the initiative.

Suddenly there flashed across his mind a picture; a
vision of hundreds of white faces upturned to his, the
faces of the Rebels at the bottom of their great shaft.
He saw the flicker of a blue tunic waved above a golden
head. He heard a calm, confident voice whispering,
“Courage! You will succeed.” He felt the warm pres-
sure of a parting kiss.

Ralph raised his head. His eyes met the enquiring
gaze of the Three with power and assurance. He took
a quick step forward and began to speak.

“Servants of the World, I Prometheus, together with
my friends Aesculapius and Enceladus, have sought this
audience on a matter of great moment. We have come
from a great distance and have encountered strange
perils on our journey. In order for our errand to be

successful, it will be necessary for the Three to cast
down and trample upon beliefs that have been theirs
from infancy — yes, and their fathers’ and their fathers’
fathers before them.

“It would be rash for me, a young man, to attempt to
convince any man of error, but it is the height of pre-
sumption for me to hope to mould the minds of the Ser-
vants of the World into a new pattern. Nevertheless,

I purpose to attempt the task. Because the task is so
great and because we three have risked much to under-
take it, therefore I plead with you that I may be heard
in patience and with an open mind, and that I be for-
given if I fail. Is it granted?”

As Ralph paused, there was modesty but no humility
in his bearing. There was silence for a few seconds
and when, at last, Kanzo Singh spoke, his words had no
reference to Ralph’s request.

“There was a young man, a reporter, at the Iron-
masters’ Convention where we first heard of the disease.
He greatly resembled this young man, but he was dark-
skinned, while this man is white. He said that he came
from the Hindoo Division. Our friend here is obviously
American. The reporter’s name was Morton. This
man’s name-plate is inscribed Prometheus.”
“Prometheus and Ralph Morton are one, Kanzo
Singh” said Ralph, neither glance nor voice faltering,
“but you are wrong in one respect. You asked Ralph
Morton if he was of the Hindoo Division. He replied
that his mother was an American. It is many years
since any man has worn upon his plate any name save
his own. That I have done so is because the need was
great and I ask that this also be glossed over until I
have revealed our errand. Again I ask, is it granted?”
“But the names you bear now are strange and mean-
ingless,” objected Hector Shawn. “Why should we lis-
ten to men who must perforce veil their true identity
under an outlandish jargon?”

“I think I can enlighten you as to that, Hector,” inter-
posed the gentle voice of Felice Mincheau. “These
names are perhaps an allegory. They are taken from
ancient Greek mythology. Enceladus was a giant who
was buried beneath Mount Etna as a punishment for
ambition. Aesculapius was the god of medicine and
surgery. As for Prometheus, he was a young man who
attempted to steal fire from heaven.”

Shawn nodded his head thoughtfully.

“It is well, Prometheus, Aesculapius and Enceladus,”
he rumbled. “The Three will hear your message and
withhold judgment until that message is complete.
Your petition is granted. Are the Three in accord?”
and he gave the sign of the Triangle, to which the
other two duly responded.

“Be seated!” commanded Shawn, and when the three
men had complied, “Speak, friend Prometheus, who
aspires to bring fire from Heaven ! Tsen Sheng, record.”
“It is unnecessary,” began Ralph, “for me to remind
the Three of the commercial and social upheaval which
threatens the world as the result of the disease which
has destroyed the iron deposits. Tsen Sheng has told
us that even the salvaged ore has contracted the dis-
ease. Indeed we were already aware of this, though it
was not an accident, as you suppose, but the deliberate
work of an enemy.

“TT 7"E feel that the Three would be remiss in the
VV performance of their duty as Servants of the
World, if they neglected any means by which the catas-
trophe may be averted. If, for example, some man came
to you and revealed the existence of a hitherto undis-
covered supply of iron, so vast in extent that it would
supply all the needs of mankind for thousands of years,
you would gladly accept his offer of help and would

482

AMAZING STORIES QUARTERLY

place at his disposal every facility to open up the new
body of ore. Am I right?”

“You are right. Proceed,” Shawn said.

“We have discovered such a supply,” announced Ralph,
rising to his feet and pointing upward to the clear, star-
gemmed night sky. “Servants of the World, what do
you see spanning the heavens like a mist of light?”

“It is the Milky Way,” replied Kanzo Singh, wonder-
ingly.

“Look where the countless stars of. the Galaxy clus-
ter thickest in the zenith. Again, what do you see?”

“We see a circle of darkness, like a black hole,” said
the Hindoo.

“Watch closer!” commanded Ralph.

There was a long silence as all eyes were turned up
to that inky disc. Then Kanzo Singh burst out into a
cry of amazement.

“By the All Wise, it moves ! It moves !”

“Servants of the World,” Ralph said, his low voice
tense with emotion, “that black moving spot is a globe
of solid iron. Like the moon, it is a satellite of the
earth, but unlike the moon it is comparatively close.
There, in the sky are countless millions of tons of un-
tainted iron to replace the ore we have lost. To tell
you of this inexhaustible supply we have come to seek
this audience with the Three.”

In the dim light from hidden lamps among the trees
Ralph watched the varied emotions upon the faces of
his listeners, as he made his announcement. Hector
Shawn knitted his brows in anger. Felice Mincheau
looked at him with a glance of mingled pity and won-
der. Kanzo Singh, the mystic, alone of the Three,
maintained his expression of grave attention. It was he
who spoke.

“I begin to understand the significance of your name,
Friend Prometheus,” he said, a faint smile twitching
the corners of his mobile lips. “We will pass over the
extreme improbability of your statement. The wise
men of old have told us nothing of a second moon, there-
fore, no such body can exist. Nevertheless, for the
sake of argument, we will accept your wild story. Now
tell us how you propose to emulate your ancient name-
sake and bring this mass of iron down from the
Heavens.”

The critical moment had come, the moment which
would spell failure or success. For an instant Ralph
hesitated and when he spoke, he made no immediate
reply to Kanzo Singh’s satirical enquiry.

“Do the Three remember that when I came to the
Ironmaster’s meeting under the name of Ralph Morton,
I ventured to suggest that science might provide a rem-
edy for the fatal iron disease ? At that time my sugges-
tion was made without definite knowledge. The Three
condemned it as heresy — contrary to the established
belief that science was a thing complete, a body of wis-
dom handed down from the great men of the past.

“Since then I have dared to break with the traditions
of centuries and sought to add to our knowledge of
science, with the object of averting this world catas-
trophe. With the help of the All Wise and of my friend
who calls himself ADsculapius, I have succeeded. It
was he who told me of the Dark Star with its boundless
stores of iron. Through an accident, I was enabled to
solve the problem of rendering this iron available. I
have visited the Rebels, those mysterious heretical scien-
tists, in their City of Eternal Calm, and they have
approved of my discovery. Let the Three discard their
prejudices against scientific research and these Rebels
will concentrate all their vast knowledge and resources
upon carrying out my plan.”

Hector Shawn’s brow was like a thunderstorm, but
his voice was low.

"Once we forgave your heresy, deeming that your
youth excused you. This time there is no forgiveness,
either for you or your companions. We will hear no
more. You shall be imprisoned for life, lest your ac-
cursed beliefs, if indeed you really believe such a farago
of nonsense, defile others.”

Ralph sat back in his chair, stunned. How had he
ever dared to nourish a hope that he could overcome the
deep-rooted beliefs of the Three? But before he could
gather himself for one last protest, the little Japanese
doctor was on his feet.

“Servants of the World!” he cried. “We invoke the
Law of the Triangle!”

“The Law of the Triangle is for all alike,” responded
Kanzo Singh, his voice dangerously smooth, “but I fail
to see how it can be applied in this case.”

“Hearken and learn!” declaimed the little Doctor
and it seemed to Ralph that his stature increased until
he towered above them all. “ ‘Equal opportunities to all
and to each the full reward of his accomplishment.’
That is the base of the Triangle! In every age the
World has forged its own chains, the chains which
have fettered the limbs of the Race and held it back
on the pathway of infinite progress. In past ages men
were tied down by stupid social and religious conven-
tions. Today we have shaken off these conventions, only
to replace them with the equally ridiculous and cruel
bonds of Scientific Prejudice.

“What are the Three that they should dare to limit
the boundaries of the Truth’ Would you usurp the
throne of the All Wise and say to mankind, ‘Thus far
shalt thou go and no further!’? It was not alone ma-
terial things of which David Windsor spoke when he
gave us the Law of the Triangle. In the name of the
Rebels we demand those equal opportunities to all which
the Law provides; equal opportunities in thought and
belief as well as in deed.

“Servants of the World, you stand at the parting of
the ways. Cast aside your worthless prejudices against
science and men will bless you as the forerunners of
an era of progress such as you cannot dream of. Re-
fuse to listen to our demands, and generations to come
will curse the names of Hector Shawn, Kanzo Singh
and Felice Mincheau, who condemned them to centuries
of Vabw: awA rathe* thaw give m? one iota of

their narrow, hidebound beliefs. I have spoken! Let
the Three answer, if they can!”

D URING this tirade, Ralph had sat with downcast
eyes and clenched hands, powerless to interrupt
the torrent of words which he felt was only serving to
seal their fate. When he ventured to look up, it was to
find no sign of the storm which he anticipated. The
thunder cloud had passed away from Hector Shawn’s
brow, there was an expression of benignancy on Kanzo
Singh’s austere features, and Felice Mincheau was
smiling.

It was not the custom of the Three to confer in the
presence of others. The Age of Social Enlightenment
had produced a spirit of mutual understanding which
had largely done away with the endless bickering and
wrangling of legislators in the past. In the Three,
constantly associated for ten years, this spirit found
its highest expression in a species of telepathy which
made discussion unnecessary.

When Felice Mincheau spoke, therefore, it was with
authority, knowing that she voiced the opinions of her
associates.

“The Three loves courage,” she said, softly, “and re-
wards courage even though it may be the outcome of
misguided enthusiasm. Let the young man, Prometheus,
tell us his plan. We will hear him because he and his
friends are brave, not because our minds are swayed

r A MODERN PROMETHEUS 483

by what the old man iEsculapius has cast in our teeth.
Are the Three in accord?”

Quietly and without heroics, Ralph told the story of
the Hanging Workshop in the Rockies. He told how he
and Geoffrey Von Elmar had isolated themselves from
their fellow men because of their firm conviction that
the time was at hand for science to resume her upward
march. He spoke of the coming of Dr. Ota Umetaro
and described the rescue of Lotus from the bergschrund
in the glacier. Passing over the dramatic advent of
Kana, he spoke of the discovery of florium.

“Centuries ago,” he went on, “wise men found that
all things were divisible into certain elementary sub-
stances. It is true that later it was found that all
these elements are the result of atomic groupings of
electrons, but it is none the less true that the ar-
rangements of the electrons are governed by a progres-
sive law. In geometry, we subdivide plane figures into
triangles, squares, pentagons, hexagons, according to
the number of their sides, although all are bounded by
the same straight lines. In a similar way the elements
follow one another according to the complexity of their
structure.

“At the close of the scientific era, there was one ele-
ment in the series which had not been isolated. It is
this element which my friends and I have discovered
and have named florium. It is this element whose ex-
traordinary properties will make accessible the bound-
less stores of iron in the Dark Star. What these prop-
erties are, I will now demonstrate.”

Taking the case which Kana had brought, he opened
it and produced a light metal tripod. Having erected
this in an open space, he clamped the little bar of
florium to the top. As the new element shed its weird
violet radiance over the scene, even the Three were
stirred to expressions of admiration.

Ralph handed to Kana a ball of iron, weighing per-
haps ten pounds. The Negro walked away to a dis-
tance of a hundred yards and placed the iron globe
upon the ground. In the meantime, Ralph took a piece
of insulated wire and having wound it two or three
times around the florium bar, he attached the ends to
the terminals of a tiny electric battery.

“Watch the iron ball!” he said.

For several seconds nothing happened. Then it
stirred, hesitated, started to roll towards them. Mov-
ing very slowly at first, it gathered speed. At a dis-
tance of about ten yards from the tripod, the ball left
the ground and soaring upward in a graceful curve,
struck the end of the florium bar, where it hung quiv-
ering, like an orange stuck on the point of a needle!
Ralph disconnected a wire from the battery and the
iron ball fell to the ground.

The Three gazed wonderingly from Ralph to the glow-
ing bar of florium.

“We have seen your demonstration, friend Prome-
theus,” said Shawn, a new respect in his deep voice.
“Tell us, what does it mean?”

“It means that in florium we have a metal whose
magnetic properties are so much in excess of anything
previously known, that so far we have been unable to
measure it. When a current of electricity passes
through a coil of wire, a magnetic force, known as a
‘field,’ is produced. The strength of this field is de-
* pendent upon a property of the substance which occu-
pies the interior of the coil. This property is called
‘permeability’ which may be defined as the susceptibil-
ity of a substance to magnetization. The permeability
of air is taken as unity, that of iron may run as high
as several thousands, meaning that with a certain cur-
rent running through a coil, the presence of an iron
core in the coil will increase the strength of the mag-
netic field several thousand times.

“Florium possesses a permeability which can be meas-
ured only in billions. It also has a tendency to crystal-
lize in long fibres, something like asbestos. The mag-
netic lines of force are parallel to these fibres, so that
it appears to issue from the ends of a bar in the form
of a narrow ray, instead of spreading in a fan, as in
the case of iron.

“Beneath the glacier is a great bed of florium ore.
We propose to excavate this ore, reduce it to the metallic
state and erect a great tower of florium. We will sur-
round this tower with copper cables, through which
will pass the current from huge generators, thus con-
verting the tower into a gigantic electro-magnet of in-
conceivable power. When the Dark Star passes across
the zenith, the current will be turned on. Thus, little
by little, our tiny satellite will be drawn from its orbit
until it finally comes to rest upon the surface of the
earth. So shall the Dark Star attain its final destiny,
to serve the needs of mankind for centuries to come!”
Upon the faces of the Three, amazement was mingled
with doubt. From the very dawn of astronomy men
had dreamed of interplanetary flight, but here was a
man who calmly proposed to reach out and pluck a star
from its orbit and carve it into fragments to house and
clothe the peoples of the world ! Small wonder that the
Three, versed as they were in the wisdom of the ages,
hesitated to believe the possibility of so fantastic a
scheme !

T HE pause was broken by Kana, He rose and stood
before the Three, his mighty arms stretched above
his head, his eyes rolled up until hardly more than the
whites were visible.

“Hearken! Hearken unto Kana, the black man,” he
cried. “Hearken unto Kana who speaks the truth;
Kana, who, like Enceladus, was buried beneath a moun-
tain of evil. These, my friends, have removed the
mountain and Kana is free. For this Kana owes a debt.
Now, it comes into Kana’s mind that he will be called
upon to pay that debt, yea, before yonder Dark Star
has sunk below the horizon. Therefore, hearken, for;
when Kana has spoken, he will speak no more !

“Think well, 0 Three, before you reject the help we
have come to offer, for if, in your blindness, you say:
‘Science! We will have none of it!’ there are others
whose sight is keener than yours, who will use this same
science to destroy you. Clifford Weatherby, he whom
you have banished, he whom once I called The Master,
even now plots to hurl you from* your seats and reign
alone as Emperor of the World. Twice already he has
sought to slay my friends, lest they rescue the World
from his grasp.

“Know, 0 Three, that the disease which has destroyed
your iron mines was not an accident. It was Weather-
ly’s chemists who discovered the disease. It was
Weatherby’s tools, of whom I was one, who planted the
germs in the shafts and tunnels. It was Weatherby’s
agents who poisoned the untainted ore which you had
saved.

“Weatherby’s mine alone escaped. There alone in all
the earth, was the ore untainted. To Weatherby, the
possession of this mine meant wealth and power be-
yond the dreams of avarice. He planned to wait until
the Three were in despair and then to come forward as
the saviour of the world. Borne upward on a wave of
popular approval, he hoped to be enthroned as Supreme
Lord of the Earth.

“But Kana, the slave he despised, has foiled his plot.
One night, when his friends were sleeping, he left the
workshop in the mountains and flew to the Weatherby
Mine. Creeping past the guards, he dropped pieces of
the diseased ore into the shafts.. Today, the last iron
deposit on earth has been wiped out.

484

AMAZING STORIES QUARTERLY

“Weatherby’s hopes are crushed, but his insane
hatred and desire for revenge have risen from the
ashes of his baffled ambition. Now, now he is plotting
to destroy you all! Even now, perchance, he hears
Kana’s voice and Kana tells him that his time is at
hand. Not the Phoenix of revenge and evil shall rise
from the flames of Clifford Weatherby’s ambitions, but
the soaring Eagle of Science reborn; reborn to lead
the world to infinite heights of knowledge and happi-
ness.

“It is enough! Kana has spoken!”

With clenched teeth and glaring eyes, the Negro
stumbled to his chair and sank down shuddering, his
face buried in his hands.

“Friends,” said Hector Shawn, and some of Kana’s
emotion echoed in his deep voice, “tonight we have seen
and heard strange, well-nigh incredible things. If in-
deed this man who calls himself Kana speaks the truth,
it seems that the All Wise has given us a new command
and that the time has come for change.

“Now we will sleep. Tsen Sheng will see to your
comfort in all things. Tomorrow, at ten o’clock, the
Board of Control will meet and decide. Tsen Sheng
will bring you to hear the decision. I have spoken.
Are the Three in accord?”

The Three rose, made the Sign of the Triangle, and
bowed courteously. The Audience was at an end.

The three friends had done what they could. Success
or failure lay in the hands of the All Wise. Yet (so
strange and wonderful are His ways), one more inci-
dent was to mark the close of that eventful day and de-
termine the outcome of the whole matter.

As they left the Three, Ralph was a little ahead, fol-
lowed closely by Kana, carrying the case of apparatus.
Dr. Umetaro came last. In this order they approached
the entrance to the grove, which was marked by two
great palms, like the huge, natural pillars of a gateway.

Just as Ralph was about to step between these trees,
he was startled by an exclamation from Kana. Next
moment he was flung back by a sweep of a mighty arm.
Burdened by the heavy metal case and overbalanced
by his sudden movement, the Negro stumbled and fell
forward into the shadows directly between the palm
trees. As he staggered back, Ralph was dimly con-
scious of a flash, like a filament of crimson fire. There
was a hideous shriek of mortal agony.

Then, darkness and silence.

A beam of light from Dr. Umetaro’s pocket flashlight
stabbed the gloom. It rested upon the body of Kana,
lying with outspread arms. There was something un-
natural in the posture of that still figure. With a thrill
of uncontrollable horror, Ralph realized that Kana’s
head was lying apart from his body, severed as though
by the sweep of a razor-sharp sword!

It was the Doctor who restrained Ralph from rush-
ing forward. The Japanese raised the beam of his
flashlight and the mechanism which had wrought
Kana’s death stood revealed in all its hideous simplicity.

A fine, metallic wire had been stretched between the
trees about five feet from the ground. At one end, the
wire was attached to a tiny switch in such a way that
the slightest pressure on any part of the wire would
close the contact. Current was supplied to the wire by
means of a battery, hidden in the grass.

What mysterious instinct apprised Kana of danger,
no one will ever know, for the wire was quite invisible
in the darkness. Suffice it that he felt the presence of
some evil which threatened the man he worshipped. As
he fell, his throat encountered the wire and closed
the switch. In an instant, the metal thread was heated
to incandescence by the passage of the current.

Kana had paid his debt!

With a jerk, the Doctor broke the connections from

the battery and tore off the fatal wire, sticky with the
life-blood of a brave man. He turned to the Three, who,
drawn by Kana’s death cry, were standing in silent awe
in the presence of death, and pointing at the headless
body —

“Clifford Weatherby’s work!” he said. “Servants of
the World, did Kana speak the truth?”

CHAPTER XV

The Oath of the Three

T HERE is no more lovely spot in the Antilles, if
indeed in all the world, than the island of Santa
Lucia. There is no more beautiful structure, even
to this day, than the Temple of the Triangle, the build-
ing in which the Board of Control gathers to consult and
decide the destiny of a planet.

As its name implies, the Temple is three-sided. There
are no walls, simply double rows of spirally fluted pillars,
ivory and crimson ferrolith alternating. The capitals
are united by a marvelously wrought entablature, the
design of which is rendered singularly attractive by its
variety. To one versed in history, this lack of uni-
formity Is deeply significant, for each section of the
frieze was the contribution of one of the old nations,
and the whole is symbolic of that merging of national
identity into one great world building which ushered in
the age of Social Enlightenment.

No roof surmounts the cornice, but filmy, semi-trans-
lucent awnings can be draped between the pillars par-
tially to shield the open court below from the intense
rays of the tropical sun.

The floor is of polychromatic ferrolith, the infinite
variety of colors interwoven, not in geometric tiles or
irregular fragments like mosaic, but blending like the
rainbow hues of a soap bubble at the point of bursting,
or of a drop of oil which spreads upon the smooth sur-
face of a pool.

On the morning following the tragic death of Kana,
each member of the Board of Control was in thon*
place in the Temple, long before the hour set by the
Three for the meeting. A tingling spirit* of unrest
seemed to pervade the assemblage, as though in antici-
pation of some unusual revelation from the presiding
officers.

If some human being from an earlier age could have
gazed into the future and seen these men and women,
members of the sole governing body of the World in
the year 2200, how strangely they would have con-
trasted with the parliaments and senates with which
he was familiar ! In those days, the principal legislature
of even a small nation comprised several hundred law-
givers, chosen from their fellows by a process which
might well be called “the survival of the unfittest,” as
a twig is washed ashore by the heaving waters of a
muddy, turbulent torrent.

The Board of Control in the Twenty-third Century
numbered thirty-four. In no sense were they “repre-
sentatives.” All came voluntarily, because they felt that
they had some message of helpfulness. All were equally
welcomed. All had a voice in the discussions.

Yet, there were discussions, but no “debates.” The
passionate, party-ridden altercations of the old days
were replaced by the calm, unbiased intercourse of
friends, to which each brought thon contribution, as
knowledge or wisdom prompted. Let the outcome be
what it might, so that it advanced the happiness of
mankind! When all had spoken, there was nothing
even faintly resembling the “vote.” One of the Three

*An old word, obsolete in the 20th Century, but revived
later, meaning “his or her.”

A MODERN PROMETHEUS 485

Bummed up the pros and cons of the matter under dis-
cussion and rendered the decision of “The Three in
Accord.” None ever dreamed of questioning these de-
cisions, not because the Three possessed any special
supreme authority, but because the sense of justice and
logic had become so universal that the decision of the
Three invariably coincided with the opinions of all the
members of the Board. It was simply a matter of ob-
taining all the available facts. The outcome was a
certainty, just as the result of an algebraic formula is
the same, no matter what mathematician performs the
calculation.

At the stroke of ten, the Three, headed by Hector
Shawn, entered the Temple and advanced to the centre
of the pavement.

“Your wish, my friends,” greeted Shawn, raising his
hand in salutation as the company rose. The Three
parted, each taking a place in one of the angles of the
floor, Shawn in the North, Kanzo Singh in the South-
east and Felice Mincheau in the Southwest. Ralph and
Dr. Umetaro, who had entered quietly in the wake of
the Three, seated themselves in the background and
prepared to listen with as much patience as they could
muster.

It was the French woman, Felice Mincheau, who rose
to speak, and at first Ralph was puzzled to trace any
connection between her words and his errand.

“Many years ago, my friends,” she began, simply,
“three men stood upon this spot and created a new
world. Now, the creation of a world may be a simple
thing to the All Wise, but to three very human men
like Walter Ballantyne, George Windsor and Jose Pas-
cano, the process involved labor and agony, the sweat
of the brow and the sweat of the brain.

“Nevertheless, all went well, for they had a message
and the world was ready to receive it. I say that all
went well, my friends, but they encountered one enemy
who, like Apollyon, came very near to frustrating their
best plans and casting them down into tho Valley of
Humiliation. That enemy was science!

“Men once regarded science as the Fairy Princess,
the good angel leading men onward to an earthly Para-
dise, but in the early Twentieth Century, just previous
to the time of which I speak, science had prostituted
herself to Mars, the God of War. The offspring of that
bestial union was a brood of devils and demons such as
Dante never dreamed of. Clouds of poisonous gases
enveloped hundreds of young men, some of whom
coughed out their lives in agony, some survived in
misery. High power explosives were dropped from
crude airplanes into groups of little children at play,
rending them limb from limb, and spattering their in-
nocent blood on the tear-stained cheeks of their wail-
ing mothers.

“I could continue indefinitely depicting the horrors
of scientific war. In the Middle Ages, war may justly
be said to have possessed a certain glamour. We can find
in our hearts to forgive the needlers slaughter for the
sake of the thrill which attended hand-to-hand com-
bat, a thrill which we today can only guess at. But
when science joined forces with war, the battlefield be-
came a shambles. Men were butchered in exactly the
same cold, unemotional spirit as cattle were killed by our
carnivorous ancestors.

“In those dark days, the days of the Last Great
War, two words, now obsolete, were on all lips; —
“camouflage” and “propaganda.” The former meant
concealment by means of trickery or disguise ; the lat-
ter, the art of training men’s minds in false beliefs.
These three men, Windsor, Ballantyne and Pascano,
faced with the problem of shackling the activities of a
Frankenstein’s monster decided upon the use of camou-
flage and propaganda. They cut the Gordian knot by

Saying, in effect: ‘Science has eschewed good and

sought after evil. We will have none of it.’

“ T T WAS Ballantyne, the scientist, who suggested the
X plan which was to fetter the science he loved, for
two hundred years. This plan was nothing less than to
create an artificial veil of mystery, similar to the fog
with which the priests of old surrounded religion. The
theory we know as the Orthodox Body of Scientific Be-
liefs was also Ballantyne’s work and the Three took a
solemn oath to carry on an intensive propaganda to the
end that the world might accept this false doctrine as
a religious tenet. For it is a false doctrine, my friends;
the greatest lie that has ever been foisted upon the
credulous human race!”

There was an uneasy movement and a subdued mur-
mur amongst the listeners, as when, the first breath
of an approaching storm ruffles the surface of a placid
lake. Covert, half-ashamed glances passed from one
to another. From childhood they had been taught
that the one and only test of scientific truth was the
sacred books of the wise men of old. Now this woman,
with her quiet, confident voice, was pulling down around
their ears the structure of their most cherished beliefs.

If Felice Mincheau was conscious of the agitation her
words produced, she gave no evidence of the fact.

“From that day, my friends,” she went on, “the
secret Oath of the Three has been passed on from
decade to decade. As time went on, a new generation
arose to whom the Orthodox Body of Scientific Be-
liefs was a part of the world they lived in. They
breathed it with the breath of life ; they drank It with
their mother’s milk. It never entered into their minds
to question the absurd doctrine. The need for propa-
ganda had passed, but still each Three, when they as-
sumed office, took the Oath.

“My friends, the time has come to proclaim the
truth. In this happy age, the danger which threatened
the world in the days of Walter Ballantyne no longer
exists. No longer will men turn the wisdom of the
scientists to the destruction of their fellows. From this
hour, science, purified and chastened by two centuries
of imprisonment, is free to go forward, leading the
world to infinite heights of knowledge and happiness.

“Would you know what has occurred to cause the
Three to break their oath? I will tell you.”

Very simply, she told the story of Ralph Morton’s
devotion to science. She spoke of the Rebels, living
in seclusion and passing on the torch of learning from
hand to hand through the generations. She told of
Ralph’s fortunate discovery of florium and of his plan
to capture the Dark Star and save the world from
economic chaos. Finally she described Clifford Weath-
erby’s hellish plot to reduce the human race to virtual
slavery, and Kana’s death for the sake of the men who
had, as he believed, saved his soul from the evil in-
fluence of his Master.

“It is to this young man,” she continued, “who re-
fused to be fettered by the conventions of the world,
to him and to his friends, that science owes her release.
Prometheus, come forward, that the Three may thank
you for what you have done!”

Hesitatingly, his face revealing the stunned amaze-
ment with which he had heard Felice Mincheau’s as-
tounding revelation, Ralph Morton advanced to the
center of the Temple. He looked around him, bracing
himself to meet the horror and hatred which has ever
been the guerdon of the heretic, the man who dared
to think for himself. Instead, he found himself en-
circled by kindly, smiling faces. In place of the storm
he had anticipated, there was joy and sunshine.

One cannot measure the mind of man with a worn-
out, discarded yardstick. These people of the Twenty-

486 AMAZING STORIES QUARTERLY

third Century were inured to change. They were ac-
customed to welcome with open arms any social trans-
formation which was for the betterment of mankind.
Their unfailing sense of logic enabled them to compre-
hend the great need which had prompted the original
Three to take their Oath and pass it on to their suc-
cessors. Now, they felt no anger such as men in the
old days would have felt at the overthrowing of a life-
long belief. Instead, they rejoiced that new vistas of
infinite promise had been opened for the delectation of
men and women, and they honored this young man
through whom the opportunity had come.

Suddenly, the pause which had greeted Ralph Mor-
ton’s appearance was broken by a movement from one
side of the Temple, where a little group of spectators
and visitors was seated. A slim, girlish figure in crim-
son and gold, flashed across the floor and with a cry of
“Raoul!” flung itself into Ralph’s arms and began
kissing him enthusiastically.

A tall, grey-haired man followed the girl, with more
sedate steps, and clasped Ralph’s hand in his own.

“Thank the All Wise, you have come back, Ralph!”
the old man exclaimed, his voice broken with emotion.

“My friend,” came the deep tones of Hector Shawn,
“what is the meaning of this demonstration? Do you
know this young man?”

“It means,” replied the grey-haired man, his face
wet with tears of happiness, “It means that your
Prometheus is my son, Ralph Ballantyne!”

CHAPTER XVI

Loose Threads

T HE Age of Social Enlightenment is past. Rather
we should say, it has been superseded, as child-
hood is displaced by adolescence, for it is hardly
conceivable that we can ever return to the state of
ignorance and superstition which prevailed in the Twen-
tieth Century. Today, we are in the midst of a great
period of interplanetary exploration and already the
world has benefited immensely by intercourse with our
friends, the Martians and the Venerians.

It is only a little over a hundred years since the
events we have been describing transpired, but already
they are losing their outlines in the mist of the past.
To our young men and women, the name of Ralph Bal-
lantyne is scarcely more than a name; the capture of
the Dark Star and the Renaissance of Science, events
which they read of in books but having as little vitality
as the Battle of Waterloo or the overthrow of the last
Martian Theocracy.

We have set ourselves the task of revitalizing those
eventful days, to the end that the memory of Ralph
Ballantyne as a living, breathing man, may not die and
that our readers may realize something of the hopes
and fears, the strengths and weaknesses which ani-
mated the young scientist and his friends.

Strictly speaking, this task is now accomplished. It
remains to gather up the loose threads and weave them
into a series of tapestries, each in itself a fragmentary
picture, but uniting to round out and complete the
story of Ralph Ballantyne,

T HE first of these tableaux is set in the home of
Kanzo Singh. The time is early afternoon, the
afternoon of that day when Felice Mincheau made her
remarkable speech. The Three are there, Ralph, Rose
and their father, and, of course, the ubiquitous Dr. Ota
Umetaro!

John Ballantyne is speaking and his words seem
strangely out of keeping with the tense emotion which
marked the climax in the Temple of the Triangle.

“I cannot for the life of me understand how Rose
recognized you, Ralph,” he is saying. “Quite aside
from the natural changes incident to ten years of sep-
aration, I should never have known your nose! My
dear boy, what on earth has happened to it?”

Ralph burst out laughing.

“John is referring to the fact that I had the mis-
fortune to drop a large, hard rock on my unfortunate
beak, during a mountaineering expedition,” he ex-
plained to the Three. “My nose got the worst of the
encounter. It was always a sore point with John; he
thought it spoiled my beauty! The transformation is
quite a simple matter, Dad,” — John Ballantyne winces
and then smiles at the familiar appellation — “When I
first met the Doctor in Denver, he performed a small
plastic operation, with the result that I have returned
to you with a proboscis of truly classic charm!”

“You have told us of the finding of florium,” says
Hector Shawn, “but you have not told us how you came
to discover its remarkable properties.”

“I was testing the various physical reactions of the
new metal,” Ralph explains. “When I inserted the lit-
tle rod into the coil of a permeameter, an instru-
ment for measuring magnetic flux, I started a miniature
cyclone. Every iron or steel object in the room tore
loose from its moorings and started towards me! For-
tunately, the sudden jerk on the florium bar broke the
battery wires, otherwise, the Doctor would have found
me buried under a heap of heavy hardware.”

“You have spoken of the almost infinite permeabil-
ity of florium,” Kanzo Singh comments, doubtfully,
but, unless I am mistaken, permeability is simply the
ability of a substance to conduct magnetism. How is it
possible to produce such a gigantic flow of force with
a small current? It seems contrary to the law of the
Conservation of Energy. In other words, how can you
get from a magnet more than you put into it?”

“You are forgetting the element of time, Kanzo
Singh,” Ralph replies. “Magnetism is a force, a ten-
sion in the ether; not a continuous flow of energy. A
trickle of water might, in time, fill a huge reservoir.
The power of a magnetic field, or in other words, the
pull of a magnet, depends upon the ability of the core
to accumulate the lines of force from the encircling
coil. Am I clear?”

“Perfectly, my friend,” replies the Hindoo. “Your
discovery, no matter what may be the ultimate result,
is a marvelous thing. Nevertheless, the greater marvel
is that you had the courage to cling to your ideals
through all those lonely years before Dr. Umetaro
came to join you.”

“Oh! But I was not alone!” exclaims Ralph. “In-
deed, I doubt very much if I could have stuck it out if
I had not had the loving encouragement of my friend,
Geoffrey Von Elmar.”

As the words leave Ralph’s lips, Rose Ballantyne
starts from her chair with a choking cry.

“Ralph! Oh! Ralph, is it possible?” she gasps, her
face deathly white. “Is Geoffrey alive and well?”

Now it is Ralph’s turn to stare with amazement.

“Of course he’s alive, Rose!” he says. “We shall see
him tonight.”

“Geoffrey, alive after all these years !” Rose murmurs,
burying her face in her hands. “Oh! Don’t you un-
derstand? He was the whole world to me and — I lost
him!”

John Ballantyne gathers the sobbing girl into the
circle of his arms and stands looking over her head at
the others with eyes half defiant, half ashamed.

“I think there is an explanation long overdue,” he
says. “I quarreled with Von Elmar — no matter what
about. He said bitter things to me — things which
turned me from a man into a raging beast. Not know-

A MODERN PROMETHEUS

487

ing what I was doing, I picked up an old dagger which
I kept on my desk for a paper knife. I struck him
with all my strength. He made no attempt to defend
himself. He stood there for a moment with the blood
streaming from a ghastly wound in his face, his eyes
filled with sorrow. I heard a sound and turned. Rose
was standing in the door, looking at Geoffrey. Then she
crumpled in a heap on the floor. I rushed to her. When
I looked for Geoffrey again, he had gone. We never
saw him again. I have greatly sinned, my friends.
Thank the All Wise that He has given me the chance
to right the wrong I did.”

* * *

T HE Crystal Chamber in the City of Eternal Calm.

The many-hued light, pulsating faintly in the
jewelled dome, illuminates but dimly the strained faces
of the waiting Rebels. In the center of the floor stands
a small pedestal, supporting a crystalline mass about
the size of a man’s head.

Seated around the pedestal are Lotus, Geoffrey and
Frank Darwin. Each rests a hand upon the block of
centrium, that strange substance which possesses the
power to bring human minds into sympathy, no matter
how great the distance separating them from one an-
other. The face of Lotus Grenville, alone of all the
assemblage, is radiant with hope; that of Darwin is
grim and determined; alternate sunshine and shadows
appear in Geoffrey’s expression, as his eyes stray from
one to the other of his companions.

Suddenly the tense silence is broken and the voice
of Lotus is raised in a veritable paean of triumph.

“They are coming!” she cries, starting to her feet.
“They are coming! Ralph is wearing the Pathfinder!”
“To the Entrance! They are coming!”

The passageways are crowded with a surging mass
of men and women, hurrying to the foot of the great
shaft. Dignity is forgotten. The acquired patience
of two centuries is cast aside. The quietude of Eternal
Calm is shattered by wild cries and muttered exclama-
tions of mingled hope and fear.

All too slowly, the mile-high tube is extended until
the expanding door opens above the surface of the sea.
Yearning eyes strain upward to catch the first glimpse
of the aerial ark which is bringing them deliverance.
Swiftly as a falling moonbeam it comes, swooping down
to settle as lightly as a wind-borne dandelion seed.

The panel slides open and a young girl steps out. For
a moment she stands gazing around her wonderingly.
Then her black eyes come to rest upon the scarred face
of the man she loves.

“Geoffrey!” “Rose! My beloved!” and these two are
clasped in an embrace which tells of the joyful reunion
of long-parted lovers.

Others are leaving the silvery space-flier. The're is a
gasp of incredulous amazement as the giant figure of
Hector Shawn appears, his arm around the shoulders
of Ralph Ballantyne. Next comes Kanzo Singh with the
little Doctor, whose slant eyes are puckered up in a
beaming smile. And last come Felice and John Bal-
lantyne, who clasps Geoffrey’s free hand and says,
huskily: “Forgive me, my friend!”

Ralph has eyes for Lotus alone and ears only for her
whispered words of love. He is hardly conscious of the
dead silence as Hector Shawn begins to speak.

“You sent a messenger to the Three, my friends; one
who called himself Prometheus. The Three have brought
him back to you, bearing a gift of which he will tell
you — the gift of freedom.

“I am no prophet. Whether your Prometheus will
succeed in his rash endeavor to bring down fire from
Heaven, I cannot say ; yet I venture to predict that the
time is not far distant when Ralph Ballantyne will
wear upon his tunic the three-colored triangle of power.

“Your associate, Dr. Umetaro, has shown us the
marvels of the guiding jewel which enables you to find
your way back to your City beneath the waves. You
call yourselves ‘The Rebels.’ Henceforth, you shall be
called ‘The Pathfinders’ and it shall be your privilege
to lead the world to new heights of knowledge and at-
tainment. Pathfinders, the Servants of the World
salute you!

“I have spoken. Are the Three in accord?”

And the hands of Kanzo Singh and Felice Mincheau
are raised in the formal gesture of assent.

The night is far spent before Ralph escapes from
the rejoicing multitude and finds himself alone with
Lotus.

“I knew you would succeed, my Lover!” he exclaims,
proudly.

“I am not sure that failure would not have been more
welcome than success at such a price,” he rejoins, sadly.
“Poor Kana! He adored you, Ralph.”

“Yes, poor Kana ! Yet there is no question that his
death awakened the Three to a realization of their
duty.”

They are silent for a space. Presently Lotus touches
Ralph’s cheek caressingly. ■

“Do you remember, Beloved, my strange feeling that
I had seen Geoffrey before? It all came back to me
this evening when I saw him with Rose. I was staying
with Rose at the Eyrie one summer — it must be five
years ago. One evening we were walking in the gar-
dens. Rose seemed distrait; her thoughts far away.
Something — I don’t know what made me look back.
Through a gap in the shrubbery I caught a single
glimpse of a face — a face marked with a hideous scar.
It vanished before I could draw Rose’s attention to it.”
“So that is where Geoff went during his mysterious
journeys,” is Ralph’s comment. “He used to go off in
his plane and come back looking utterly worn out. I
don’t see why he thought it necessary to break off his
relationship with Rose. Su'rely he didn’t believe that
her love depended upon his good looks!”

“You silly boy ! How could he ask Rose to share his
life when that scar on his face would be a constant re-
minder of your father’s act?”

Ralph ponders over that for a few moments.

“Well — but — ” he says, finally. “The Doctor has sev-
eral times offered to remove the scar and Geoff al-
ways refused to have it touched.”

Lotus smiles in her superior womanly wisdom.

“It wasn’t the scar on Geoff’s face that kept him away
from Rose. It was the scar on your father’s soul. That
scar is healed now, thanks to my splendid lover!”

“No, my Flower,” he replies. “Not thanks to me,
but thanks to Kana.”

* * *

T HAT winter was a busy time for Ralph and his
friends. The entire engineering personnel of
the new-born Pathfinders devoted itself to solving the
numerous technical problems involved in the great un-
dertaking. The exact permeability of florium was de-
termined by the physicists, while the astronomers meas-
ured anew the mass, orbit and period of the Dark Star.

By making use of these figures, the electrical engi-
neers were enabled to calculate the various elements of
the huge florium magnet with which they hoped to cap-
ture the tiny satellite. The length and diameter of the
florium core, the ampere-turns of the copper winding,
the nature and thickness of the insulation; all these
things were matters of vast importance, if failure or
even serious disaster were to be avoided.

It was not Ralph’s intention to create a magnetic field
of such strength that the Dark Star would instantly
leave its orbit and fall upon the earth, even if such a
thing had been possible. The lines of magnetic at-

488

AMAZING STORIES QUARTERLY

Now it was not the steady, white radiance of
the flood-lights, but a lurid, crimson corusca-
tion in which the figure of Clifford W eatherby,
one arm thrown across his eyes to shield them
from the awful glare, stood out in detail.

A MODERN PROMETHEUS 489

traction would issue from the florium core in the form
of two slightly divergent beams, one from each end.
The direction and form of these beams being known, it
would be a simple matter to turn on the current when-
ever the Dark Star came into range; that is to say,
twice in each revolution.

Little by little, the fifty-mile ball of iron would be
drawn nearer, moving faster In its orbit as it did so.
Finally, when it had approached within a hundred
miles of the surface, the full power of the magnet
would be turned on. That would be the critical mo-
ment. Hurling along in its new orbit at the tremen-
dous speed of ten thousand miles per hour, the Dark
Star must be brought to rest instantly. There was no
room for error. Once let the Star escape from the
grip of the magnet and it would pursue its course
around the world, leaving behind it a pathway of death
and destruction.

Early May, a little over six months after Ralph’s
eventful visit to Santa Lucia, found him once more on
the balcony of the Hanging Workshop in the moun-
tains. With him were Lotus and Dr. Umetaro, besides
a large number of scientists, gathered together to wit-
ness the first step towards their ambitious goal.

The silvery ribbon of the glacier shone in virgin
purity under its unsullied robe of winter snow, though
here and there crevasses were beginning to open and
the air was filled with the tinkling of innumerable tiny
streams. On the opposite side of the valley, close to
the point where Geoffrey had rescued Ralph from, the
clutches of Kana, stood a small building, in front of
which was a glittering structure like a huge search-
light.

Far away, below the glacier, was the great berg-
sehrund in which Ralph and Lotus had first met. No
sign of the chasm was visible under the universal
mantle of white, but it did not need the pressure of
Ralph’s hand or the slightly regretful glance he gave,
to remind her that their strange sub-glacial meeting
place would soon be no more.

As they watched, a lurid ray darted from the search-
light on the cliffs and, after wavering uncertainly, came
to rest upon the site of the bergschrund. The intense
whiteness of the snow darkened, changed to dirty grey,
and, more quickly than it can be told, a tiny, blue lake
had formed. Swiftly the lakelet widened, sent out
streams which merged into a rushing torrent of
mingled snow and water.

The torrent spread over the surface of the ice until
it filled the whole breadth of the valley and poured
down over the tongue of the glacier in a raging cascade.
Under the pitiless blaze of the heat-ray, a great pit
was forming in the ice, a caldron filled with boiling
water and fed by repeated avalanches which thundered
down from the slopes below the pass, leaving a surface
of grey, glistening rock.

Two hours later the glacier was a thing of the past.
Its ice-polished bed, hidden for, the All Wise knows
how many million years, stood bare to the light of day.
Down the centre of the valley for a distance of over a
mile, a violet band of florium ore lay revealed, fluoresc-
ing with a ghostly radiance, as the shadows of night
gathered over the peaks.

Presently, a plane settled in the landing cradle and
Rose and Geoffrey joined the group.

“Yes, it didn’t take long to spoil our valley, did it?”
Geoffrey regretted. “Congratulations on your ray-
projector, Olaf Ericsson. It certainly came up to our
expectations. Thanks for letting me handle it.”

“I wouldn’t worry too much about the destruction
of your glacier, Von Elmar,” observed the old scientist.
“In a few years you will be able to observe the forma-
tion of a new one — a sight no human being has ever

been privileged to witness. That ought to be some
compensation.”

“Lotus and I are leaving for the Pole tomorrow,”
Ralph announced. “I’ll leave you in charge here, Geof-
frey. Thanks to Ericsson’s Ray Smelter, you won’t
find much difficulty in separating the metal.”

“The ore bed is far more extensive than I had an-
ticipated,” Dr. Umetaro commented. “Judging by the
outcrop, there must be millions of tons.”

“I must admit that I was a bit worried lest the ore
in the bergschrund should prove to be just a pocket,”
confessed Ralph. “Well, friends, shall we sleep? There’s
plenty of room, although I fear the accommodations are
somewhat primitive.”

* *

A SITE had been chosen for the great magnet, close
to the centre of the antarctic plateau. A circular
pit in the ground was substituted for Ralph’s original
suggestion of a tower which was, upon more mature
consideration, deemed impractical. With the aid of the
Heat Ray, the ice was melted away over a considerable
area, the resultant water passing away in the form of
steam.

The Disintegrating Ray, of which Dr. Umetaro had
spoken when the space flier was almost destroyed by
Clifford Weatherby’s depth bomb, was brought to bear
upon the exposed rock, the atoms of which dissolved
into their constituent electrons and simply ceased to
exist.

In less than a week, a vertical shaft was dug, three
thousand feet deep and fifty in diameter. At a distance
of a hundred feet from the surface, a deep groove was
cut in the sides of the shaft.

The next task was the construction of the winding.
This consisted of a series of massive copper rings, split
at one point and with the ends offset, something like
the familiar “lock-washer.” These rings were piled one
upon another in the interior of the shaft, which they
just fitted. The ends of the successive rings were brazed
together to form a continuous helix. Insulation be-
tween adjacent rings was provided by means of a
thick layer of spanelite, a synthetic substance invented
by one of the Pathfinders. Insufer, the standard al-
lotropie iron insulator, was no longer available in suf-
ficient quantities.

The huge winding terminated just below the con-
centric groove and the lower end was brought to the
surface through a small auxiliary shaft, bored for the
purpose.

While this work was being carried on in the antarc-
tic under Ralph’s directions, Geoffrey’s smelting oper-
ations were proceeding rapidly. Long before the wind-
ing was complete, shipments of florium bars began to
arrive. These were stacked in the center of the hollow
copper winding, care being taken that the crystalline
fibres should run vertically. Like the winding, the
florium core terminated below the groove in the walls
of the shaft.

A series of steel bars was now installed above the
completed magnet, to serve as reinforcement, and the
remaining space filled with a mass of concrete a hun-
dred feet thick, its lower edge locking into the groove.

“I don’t quite understand the object of the concrete,
Ralph,” remarked Lotus, who was watching the im-
mense mixers at work. “Why did you not bring the
magnet to the surface? Won’t the concrete interfere
as an insulator with the lines of force, as you call
them?”

“To answer your last question first, my Flower,”
Ralph replied, “there is no such thing as an insulator
of magnetism, since magnetism is a strain, not a move-
ment. Even the lower end of our magnet will act with
equal strength, although the lines of force must pass

490

AMAZING STORIES QUARTERLY

through the whole earth. Of course, the pull will be
only about one-quarter as great in that direction, since
the Dark Star is twice as far away.”

“But why use the concrete at all, Ralph?” Lotus
objected. “One would think you were trying to hold
the magnet down!”

“That is exactly what we are doing, Sweetheart,” he
responded. “You must remember that the attraction be-
tween our magnet and the Star is mutual. If it were
not for that block of concrete, locked into the solid
rock, the florium core would shoot out of the winding,
like a bullet from a gun, as soon as the current was
turned on!”

The power plant to supply the energizing current
presented a puzzling problem, since it was absolutely
essential that it should be protected from injury at the
moment of impact. This difficulty was solved by melting
another pit in the ice at some distance from the magnet.
Radio-controlled collectors were installed in this pit
and connected to the magnet by means of copper cables
running in channels in the ice. After the machinery had
been enclosed in a watertight casing, the pit and chan-
nels were filled with water and allowed to freeze. After
the magnet pit had been similarly treated, the antarc-
tic ice presented once more an unbroken surface, no
trace remaining of the elaborate mechanism which had
cost so much labor and time to construct.

* * *

UT in the meantime, what of the world at large?
And what of Clifford Weatherby?

A passage from the editorial column of the Chicago
Tele- Journal, a copy of which happened to come into
the writer’s possession recently, answers these ques-
tions more vividly than pages of dry description could
possibly do. The paper is dated October 19, 2200 —
18 o’clock edition, two weeks after the meeting in
Santa Lucia. After touching briefly on the pronounce-
ment of the Three abolishing the Orthodox Body of
Scientific Beliefs, the editor continues as follows :

“The Board of Control has every reason to be
thankful that we live in the Twenty-third Century,
not in the Twentieth. In those days, a Government
which issued a proclamation declaring that the
weather was not influenced by the changes of the
moon, or that the act of walking under a ladder was
a harmless procedure, would have been hooted out
of office. Men’s minds were a jumble of prejudices
and superstitions, and woe betide anyone who dared
to suggest that Reason was superior to Precon-
ceived Opinion!

“Today, we are superior to such narrow beliefs.
And yet, are we so very superior after all ? Is it a
matter for congratulation that for two hundred
years we have allowed ourselves to be led astray
by a fable which would hardly deceive a child — the
Fable of Scientific Orthodoxy?

“The truth is that we were not deceived. In
our hearts, we have never admitted that the scien-
tists of the past ‘knew it all.’ We knew that the
Three forbade scientific research; we trusted the
judgment of the Board of Control and, as the sim-
plest way out of a logical paradox, accepted the
doctrine of Scientific Non-Progressiveness.

“The destruction of this doctrine has brought
no upheaval, either mental or political. We are
like children who, having tired of playing at Make-
Believe, put away their toys and turn their atten-
tion to reality. The world is glad that a false
dogma which it has never more than half believed,
has been relegated forever to the dead past.

“That is our diagnosis of the general feeling with
regard to the pronouncement from Santa Lucia,
and our impression is confirmed by the ever-increas-

ing flood of messages of congratulation and relief,
which come pouring in to the Board of Control
from every Division on the planet.

“Whether Ralph Ballantyne and his Pathfinders
will succeed in their undertaking to capture the
Dark Star, remains to be seen. Failure would not
alter the fact that we stand at the foot of a moun-
tain whose 'summit touches the heavens ; the Moun-
tain of Knowledge.”

Further on, there is a brief news item, headed:
“Atavar Missing.”

“A committee of the Board of Control visited the
Weatherby Mines in Florida today. They found
the place entirely deserted and the ore completely
destroyed by the disease, the germs of which were
planted by Wahkola Kana two months ago, in his
successful attempt to foil the evil plans of his
erstwhile Master. No trace was found of Clifford
Weatherby, and it is believed that the Atavar may
have taken his own life after his failure to kill
Ralph Ballantyne by means of the Depth Bomb and
the Incandescent Wire.”

* * *

T HE task was complete to the last detail, and the
great florium magnet in its copper casing lay buried
beneath the ice of the antarctic plateau.

On the first day of Sol, 2202, a great company of
men and women was gathered in John Ballantyne’s
office, overlooking the Hudson River. It was late after-
noon, but the room was in semi-darkness. At one end
stood two large television screens, each displaying upon
its surface a different picture.

The lefthand screen w r as a vision of utter desolation.
A circle of hummocky ice, brilliantly illuminated by hid-
den floodlights, merged at the edges into Stygian dark-
ness; the six-month darkness of the antarctic winter.
Gusts of snow-laden wind howled in the outer gloom,
burst through the barriers and scurried across the
lighted circle, to be lost again in the blackness. The
eerie hiss of the gale, distinctly audible in the silent
room, gave an impression of such extreme realism that
Lotus Grenville unconsciously shivered and drew her
tunic closer around her.

In the centre of the picture, where the light was
strongest, was a black circle, enclosing a sheet of ice
as smooth as a skating rink. It marked the site of the
florium magnet which crouched a thousand feet below,
like some sulking monster, waiting for the signal to
throw its invisible tentacles into space and seize its
victim. Involuntarily, Ralph thought of the giant squid
he had seen in the ocean depths.

The second screen showed the interior of a small,
domed room, in which were seated two men. One of
these, whose swarthy skin and refined features revealed
his Maori blood, sat with his eyes glued to the lenses of
a binocular telescope. The other was Dr. Umetaro. His
hand rested upon the switch which would turn the cur-
rent from a dozen of the world’s largest transmitting
stations, through the buried transformers and thence
to the copper helix of the florium magnet. This must be
done at the moment when the Dark Star entered the
narrow field of attraction. The observatory had been
erected for this purpose upon the summit of Mt. Cook,
or Aorangi, the culminating peak of the New Zealand
Alps.

The Doctor looked up from his intent watching of the
chronometer upon the table and smiled.

“One minute to go, friends !” he said, quietly.

One minute to go and then — what? The hovering
fingers of the little Japanese surgeon would fall and,
in the act, would unleash forces of such magnitude that
the solid earth might well be rent in fragments! A

A MODERN PROMETHEUS

491

kind of breathless horror descended upon the silent
company as they looked through the screen into that
fatal room, half a world away.

Thirty seconds more! Ralph’s eyes seemed chained
by invisible bonds to that waiting figure in the far-away
observatory. His whole being was concentrated on
those hovering yellow fingers. Dimly he was aware of
a low humming noise which seemed to emanate from
the other screen. Cloudily, in the borderland of vision,
he was conscious of something that moved across the
glaring circle of ice — moved and then was still.

With an effort of will, he tore his gaze away and
looked. On the glassy ice, in the centre of the black
circle, stood a tiny plane. The cabin door opened and a
man stepped out and stood staring around him, as
though bewildered. At first, he had his back towards
the televisor, but after a moment, he turned and Ralph
saw a cadaverous mask, distorted in a grimace of hate,
and a puny fist raised in a gesture of furious anger. A
cry of amazement burst from Ralph’s lips.

“Clifford Weatherby!”

At the same instant, the Maori astronomer raised his
hand and simultaneously Dr. Umetaro closed the switch.
Immediately, the antarctic floodlights were extinguished
and the screen was in darkness. Then came a dull,
soundless thud, the tremor of a mighty planet as she
stiffened her thews for a tug-of-war with her tiny,
adopted satellite !

Startled by Ralph’s cry, wondering faces were turned
to his.

“It was Weatherby !” he exclaimed, in a hushed voice.
“I saw him there — in the other screen — right over the
pole of the magnet. He landed from a plane — alone.
He stood there grinning and shaking his fist at the
sky. Do you suppose he’s — mad?”

Where had the would-be Emperor hidden himself
after the collapse of his schemes? What wild notion
had drawn him to that desolate spot at the very instant
when the florium magnet leaped into life? Was he put-
ting into force one last, desperate attempt to baffle his
enemies or was he indeed, as Ralph suggested, mad ?

Before these questions could be formed into words,
the dark screen was lighted once more, but now it was
not the steady, white radiance of the floodlights, but a
lurid, crimson coruscation in which the figure of Clif-
ford Weatherby, one arm thrown across his eyes to
shield them from the intolerable glare, stood out in
minutest detail.

The heavens were a blaze of rushing fires as countless
thousands of meteorites, torn from their age-long
courses by the urge of the mighty magnet, came pouring
down the lines of force and flamed into incandescence
at the friction of the atmosphere.

Hundreds of the larger aerolites won their way
through the retarding barrier and beat upon the sur-
face of the ice. The room was filled with dull roarings.
For a few brief moments there was a glimpse of the
unfortunate financier crouching, grovelling with up-
raised hands in an inferno of flame. Then, dense clouds
of swirling steam enveloped him and mercilessly con-
cealed the end.

* * *

I T was winter again — winter in New York, but mid-
summer at the South Pole, and once more John Bal-
lantyne’s office was filled with a great company.

Throughout the intervening months, at steadily de-
creasing intervals, the florium magnet had hurled forth
its imperious message to the heavens. Day by day had
come the reassuring news from the observatories of the
world ; news of an ever narrowing orbit, an ever acceler-
ated orbital velocity, until now the Dark Star raced

around the world in a period of little more than two
hours, barely grazing the atmosphere in its mad flight.
Today, a current of fourfold strength would be crowded
into the mighty copper helix in the attempt to arrest
that headlong flight — forever!

A new televisor had been installed upon the summit
of an adjacent mountain, to replace the one destroyed
by the constant bombardment of the meteorites. The
screen displayed an ice-plain, lit by the oblique rays of
the polar sun and extending to the horizon. In the
middle distance was a conical black mound, a heap of
meteoric iron, beneath which lay the ashes of Clifford
Weatherby, and the crushed remnants of his plane.

The eyes of the watchers were fixed upon the northern
horizon. Suddenly the shimmering border of the ice-
field was cut by a convex arc of black. With appalling
speed and overwhelming majesty, the Dark Star rose
into view until its mighty orb filled half the sky, pre-
ceded by a sea of shadow which swept across the ice
like a tangible thing.

Ralph’s hand descended upon the switch. It seemed
incredible that any power of human making could stay
the onrush of that flying mountain, that hurtling sphere.
Yet, there upon the screen, before their eyes, the path of
the Dark Star swerved, changed from an ellipse into a
superb parabola. Three trillion tons of iron, the core of
a sun, plunged in its last fall a hundred miles through
the air and quivered to rest upon the frozen plain.

The whole world trembled at that tremendous impact.
Earthquakes, tidal waves and storms were experienced
everywhere, but fortunately none was of sufficient mag-
nitude to do serious damage, and, thanks to the fact
that the event was anticipated, no lives were lost.

When the earth had ceased from her shuddering,
Ralph Ballantyne rose up and stood with his arm around
the woman he loved. There was triumph in his glance
as he began to speak, but Lotus had no eyes save for
her lover’s face.

“Servants of the World, the Dark Star is yours,” he
said. “No longer need you mourn the destruction of
the mines, for here is iron enough to supply mankind
for a thousand years. My work is finished and at last
I am free to follow the dictates of my heart.

“Therefore, I, Ralph, do take Lotus to be my Com-
panion, for so long as it shall please the All Wise to
grant.”

So he kissed her.

L’Envoi

T HE circling years have dealt kindly with' Ralph
Ballantyne, leaving his youth and enthusiasm un-
touched, while adding the dignity and wisdom and
the poise of self-confidence which become him well. As
he sits there in the northern apex of the Temple of the
Triangle, he is the same Ralph we have known and yet
different, for his face and manner bear the stamp of
mature manhood.

Close beside him sits the Companion of his life, in her
eyes the mystery and calm of summer seas, her hair
still radiant with the gold of fruitful wheat-fields. At
her feet, his head against her knee, is another Ralph — a
boy of ten, with his father’s clean-cut features and his
mother’s serene, dreaming eyes.

The Board of Control has been discussing the building
of the first fleet of liners to ply between the Earth and
Mars. This business concluded, Ralph rises and, with
the sign of the Triangle and a resonant “Your wish,
Friends!” dismisses the gathering.

Lotus slips her arm through Ralph’s and leads him
( Continued, on page 574)

Black

r J 1 HE title of homo sapiens may be deserv-
Jl edly applied to man in this day and age —
after endless wars and wasting of mechanical
energy — but what mysterious secrets are still
bound up in nature ! Some of these , if and
when they are revealed, may release so much
that is powerful and remarkable as to put our
present-day amazing inventions into the dim
background. And when all the mysteries are
solved and all of nature’s forces are used, what
then? Will the Universe continue in the self-
same manner, forever unchanging? It seems
a hardly logical thing to expect in this forever
changing world. What tests man will be put
to, and what obstacles he will have to over-
come is still a matter for distant contempla-
tion, perhaps, but our young author is impa-
tient and must needs find ways and means right
now. Exciting and thrilling things take place,
but our old friends, Wade, Arcot and Morey,
the scientific trio, are on the job, causing a
quick ensuing denouement.

Just as his projector at last came
free, the ray hurled him . . . away
from the men.

The

i

492

By John W. Campbell, Jr.

Author of " When the Atoms Failed,”
“The Metal Horde,” etc.

T AJ LAMOR gazed steadily down at the vast
dim bulk of the ancient city spread out be-
neath him. In the feeble light of the stars
its mighty masses of upflung metal build-
ings loomed strangely, like the shells of
some vast race of crustacea, long extinct. Slowly he
turned, gazing now out across the great plaza, where
nested long rows of mighty, slim ships. Silently,
thoughtfully he stared at their dim, half-seen shapes.
I cannot call Taj Lamor human. Earth had never
seen creatures such as Taj Lamor. His species had
never had the opportunity to develop on Earth.

Yet perhaps that race had better reason to ap-
propriate the term homo sapiens for its mem-
bers than have we, for wise they were, with the
age-old wisdom of uncounted seons.

Illustrated by
WESSO ’

The civilization of this race was an easy
decline from vast heights of knowledge, of
learning, of science. Theirs was a deca-
dent race now. Long ages ago they had
defeated their last external enemy. Their
life had for long millenniums led them gently down from
those vast heights, and through easy forgetfulness, and
lack of strife, ambition had died; and with it had gone
the incitement of adventure.

It was for this reason that Taj Lamor’s task was so
difficult when he tried to organize this great expedition.

There had been a few men who felt the stirrings of
a long-buried emotion, ambition, love of adventure, and
these few were throw-backs to those ancestors of long
ago, whose science had built their world. These men
had had a mighty struggle against the inertia of ages
of slow decline, and worse than all, the secrets of their
hundred-million-year-old science had been lost. Slowly
Taj Lamor raised his eyes to the horizon. Through the
leaping curve of the crystal clear roof of their world
there glowed a blazing point of yellow fire, a great star.
So brilliant was it that it cast a distinct shadow of the
watcher on the metal roof. Long Taj Lamor stood gaz-
ing off at the bright point of yellow fire. He was re-
viewing the events of the last few years, and perhaps
the events of a million centuries. Perhaps there passed
before his vision a pageant, a strange pageant that cov-
ered the awful sweep of a hundred million years of
civilization.

493

494

AMAZING STORIES QUARTERLY

In the far, dim past, perhaps, he saw in space fifteen
planets circling a small, red sun. On those planets there
was no life. Only three were fit for life, but as yet the
cosmic accident had not happened. Perhaps a million
years passed before there crawled about on them the
first beginnings of life. Then a hundred million years
passed, and that first, crawling protoplasm had become
a series of strange animals, plants and intermediate
growths. Then more millions of years passed, and there
appeared a creature that slowly gained ascendancy
over the other struggling creatures that sought their
places in the warm rays of the hot, red sun. That sun
had been old, even as the ages of a star are counted, ere
its planets had been born, and many, many millions of
years had passed ere those planets cooled, and then more
aeons sped by before life appeared. Now, as life slowly
forced its way upward, that sun was old and nearly
burned out. Those animals fought, and bathed in the
luxury of its rays, for many millenniums were required
to produce any noticeable change in those life-giving
radiations.

At last that one animal had gained ascendancy. It
was the ruling genus. The last hundred million years
had been entered upon now. The race of homo sapiens
was rising to civilization.

Before the eyes of the thinker passes a long line of
struggling, semi-barbaric people who fought among
themselves. First came stone buildings, the beginnings
of engineering. With them came little chemical engines
that would destroy them ; warfare was developing. Then
came the first crude flying-machines, using clumsy, in-
efficient engines. Chemical engines ! Engines that were
so inefficient that one could watch the flow of their fuel !
One part in one hundred thousand million of the energy
of their fuels they released to run the engines, and they
carried fuel in such vast quantities that they staggered
under its load as they left the ground! The first me-
chanical flight ! After it, though, there came other ma-
chines and other ages. Other scientists began to have
visions of the realms beyond, and they sought to tap the
vast reservoirs of Nature’s energies, the energies of
matter.

Other ages saw it done — a few thousand years later
there passed out into space a fragile, delicate machine
that forced its way out through the void, and across to
another planet !

Swiftly now, science seemed to leap up on itself, build-
ing with ever faster steps, like some crystal which, once
started, grows ever faster.

And while that science grew swiftly greater, other
changes were taking place, changes in their universe
itself. Ten million years had passed before the first of
those changes became pronounced. But slowly, steadily
their atmosphere was leaking into space. Through ages
it was gradually apparent. Their world was losing its
air and its water.

A GAIN science helped them. Their discovery of
. space-travel machines had enabled their civiliza-
tion to meet the scarcity of metals, but now their air
and water were going. Water they could import for a
while, but still it was disappearing. They must find new
sources, and even the other planets were well nigh ex-
hausted of metals. But their ten-million-year-old science
aided them once more.

Thousands of years before science had learned how to
change the mass of matter into energy, but now at last
the process had been reversed, they could change energy
into matter, any kind of matter they wished. Rock they
took, and changed it to energy, then that energy they
transmuted to air, to water, to the necessary metals.
Their planets took a new lease of life !

But even this could not continue forever. They must

stop that loss of gas, for eventually the entire planets
would slowly pass into the void. The process they had
developed for reformation of matter admitted of a new
use. Creation ! They were now able to make elements,
things that had never existed in nature! They de-
signed atoms, as, long before, their fathers had de-
signed molecules. But even so their problem was not
solved, till at last a new form of matter was made.
This was clearer than any crystal, and yet stronger,
and tougher than any metal known. Passing any light
or heat ray, they could roof their worlds with it and
keep their air within !

This w r as a task that could not be done in a year,
nor a decade, but when all time stretched out unending
before them .

Three planets of the fifteen were of a temperature
adapted to life, and one by one these planets became
vast, roofed-in cities. Only their titanic powers, their
mighty machines made the task possible, but it was
done.

Slow ages drifted on, and the pageant bore only a
long tale of greater triumphs of science, and here and
there came the story of awful wars in the void, when
the population would be halved, and all space for a bil-
lion miles about would be a vast seething cauldron of
battling ships and deadly rays. Forces were loosed on
the planets that swung even their mighty masses loose
in their orbits, and equal or greater forces were op-
posed, and the worlds rocked drunkenly in their orbits,
pawns in the play of titanic forces that tore space
itself with the awful play of its energies, and light was
unable to pass through the distorted space.

Then came peaces, always futile. A few brief mil-
lenniums, then again the flame of war burst out, and
space was again rocked with the warring of forces that
dwarfed into insignificance the planets, and the stars,
swinging them, helpless, in the grip of awful energies.
But for each force an equal force appeared on the
opposing side, and the worlds were readjusted. Yet at
last they would end, and life would continue.

But slowly, slowly there crept upon the Pageant of
Time a darkening cloud, a slow change that came so
gradually no man could see it, but only the’ records of
instruments, made over thousands of years, could show
it. Their sun had changed from bright red to a
deeper, duller, red, and ever less and less heat poured
forth from its surface. Their sun was waning !

As its fires of life died down, the people of the
wheeling worlds joined in a lasting bond; they must
fight the great common menace, death from the cold
of space.

1 IKE people huddling close to the fire as the cold
blasts begin to blow, these men of long ago drew
their planets closer and closer to the dying sun. Other
planets were habitable now, and these others were taken
possession of, and mighty roofs of the clear material
were thrown over them. Life went on beneath, and
above the sun was dying.

A star cannot grow cool, but it becomes “closed,”
shutting in its floods of light and warmth with a blanket
of intangible gravitation. A star that is burnt out
cannot cool down; it lacks the terrific stores of energy-
needed to cool its substance, yet it lacks the energy
to continue radiation. It cannot cool, yet it cannot
give off any more energy as radiation. It must main-
tain itself at a terrific temperature in space, which
seems to demand a high radiation. Too tired to stop
working! Paradoxical that may seem to us, but to
those people it was deadly fate. Their sun was dying
and their worlds were freezing.

Within the heart of every' star there is a vast fur-
nace where matter is converted into energy. The mass

THE BLACK STAR PASSES

495

of matter is destroyed, and every gram of matter
yields 900,000,000,000,000,000,000 ergs of energy, but
this energy, radiated as light and heat, has all the mass
that the matter had! That light has mass is easy to
prove; it is easy to show its momentum, for it exerts
a very definite pressure. However, the mass of light
is so slight, to have a mass appreciably great so much
light is required, that we cannot ordinarily detect that
mass. We feel the heat first.

In those furnaces of the stars, matter is destroyed
by heat. It is heated here to a temperature of 40,000,-
000 degrees centigrade. Such a temperature is incom-
prehensible in ordinary life, for temperature is the
measure of the kinetic energy of the molecules that
make up that body, but at that temperature no
molecules can exist. They would be flying about at
such terrific speed that their collisions would crush

them. So violent are these collisions at this tempera-
ture that even the atoms are disrupted, and they are
smashed, and the protons and electrons are sepa-
rated. No other solar system could come nearer to
ours than the orbit of Neptune— nearly three billion
miles away from the sun — without disrupting the sys-
tem. Similarly, no atom can come closer to its nearest
neighbor than the orbit of its outermost electron. If
this be knocked off, the atoms may approach more
closely. This process of packing has been carried to the
ultimate in the interior of stars, and the atoms are com-
pletely stripped of their electrons. Atoms so stripped
can, of course, be packed very closely. When we con-
sider how empty an atom of lead is, we can begin to
appreciate the density these atoms could reach when
so packed. In the center of any star these conditions
are reached.

But now let us suppose that this star cools. What
will happen to the atoms? The electrons, which have
been stripped off, will at once fall back into their
orbits, and the atom will again become its former
bulky self, mostly empty space. As this happens, it
must have more room. As it cools, it expands, and ex-
pands enormously.

As the center of a star expands, it must necessarily
make room for itself by lifting out of its way the
upper layers of the star. But these upper jayers are,

then, being lifted against gravity. Work is being done.
It was our original hypothesis that the star, which
was cooling, was already burnt out. It has not the
energy to do this work of expansion.

T HE gravitational attraction at the star’s surface
increases rapidly, till at last a new effect becomes
pronounced. It has been pointed out that light has
mass. Now, any light leaving the surface of the star
must lift itself away against the immense gravitational
attraction at the star’s surface! The result is that a
condition is reached when the star has become so
“packed” that no light can leave it! We have at last
a body which is exceedingly hot, yet cannot radiate!

Such a condition, the star of the system of Taj
Lamor’s ancestors had tended toward. Through long
millions of years they had seen the life die out of their
sun. Through those long years they had laid plans,
and they had built their cities, had roofed in worlds,
so that they might heat them artificially. They had
built mighty heating plants, furnaces that burned mat-
ter, and warmed a world! Now all planets were alike
habitable, and again the race expanded. They had at
last reached a condition of stability, for never would
conditions change again, it seemed. All external heat
and light they received came from the far-off stars of
the galaxy, the three hundred thousand million flaming
suns that would never fail them !

And now the pageant showed only a black star, with

fifteen black planets circling it in awful, eternal night.
A system from which no spark of light shone forth.

Yet now their advancement was not stopped. Steadily
the race went on, progressing to their goal of all knowl-
edge. They hoped that some day, somehow, they might
escape these darkened, artificial worlds of theirs, but
they knew that there was no hope, for the nearest star
was over three and three-quarters light years off across
the void.

So, hoping, they waited on their planets, while their
scientists searched. Then, across the field of this
pageant of a hundred million years of history, came
scientist after scientist, and the people waited, and
lived. They progressed, did the scientists, but the people
merely waited. The scientists that came in these days
seemed less brilliant than the old-time students, and
many facts were forgotten, for the scientists of the
race must come from the people and the people found
it pleasant to wait. The world was unchanging, there
was no strife, and no need of strife. There was no
need to move — their worlds were warm, and pleasant,
and safe. They were quite willing to wait.

And so the millenniums passed, and there were mu-
seums, and libraries, and laboratories, but there were
no scientists worthy of the name. It was easier, and
pleasanter to watch the machines of their ancestors do
the work. So skillful, and so sure !

And so they had rested.

T HEN came a scene in that pageant that seemed
different. For there was Space, and the infinite
glories of the stars, and there was one star that glowed
brightly yellow off there in far space. The star was
interesting. Curious ones who still knew the meaning
of adventure, true throwbacks, men who had that
Divine gift of curiosity that marks the genius from
the sheep, went to the museums and looked carefully
at the ancient directions for the use of the teleetroscope,
the mighty electrically amplified vision machine, and
gazed through it. Now they saw a great sun that
seemed to fill all the field of the apparatus with blazing
fire. Here was a sun to envy! These men who still
knew the meaning of curiosity, they wanted to be there,
and they looked long at its brilliance, then turned
the director a bit and saw that there circled about
the sun a series of planets, seven they saw, but there
were two that were doubtful, so small they were.

Taj Lamor had been with that group, a young man
then, scarcely over forty, but they had found him a
leader and they had followed him as he set about his in-
vestigation of the ancient manuscripts on astronomy.

How many, many hours had he studied those ancient
books! How many times had he despaired of ever
learning the truth of those ancient scientists, and gone
out to the roof of the museum to stand in silent thought
looking out across the awful void to the steady flame
of the yellow star ! Then quietly he had returned to his
self-set task.

With him as teacher, others had learned, and before
he was seventy there were many men who had become
true scientists, astronomers. There was much that
these men could not understand of the ancient works,
for the science of a million centuries is not to be
learned in a few brief decades, but there was much of
the forgotten lore that they had relearned.

They knew now that that young, live sun, out there
in space, was coming ever nearer to them, their com-
bined velocities bringing the two bodies towards one
another at over 100 miles each second. And they knew
that there were not seven, but eight tiny planets circling
about that sun. There were other facts they discov-
ered; they found that the new sun was far larger
than theirs had ever been; indeed it was a sun well

496

AMAZING STORIES QUARTERLY

above average in size and brilliance. There were
planets, a hot sun — a HOME! Could they get there?

When their ancestors had tried to solve the problem
of escape they had concentrated their work on the
problem of going at speeds greater than that of light.
This should be an impossibility, but the fact that these
men had tried it, seemed proof enough to their de-
scendants that it was possible, at least in theory. They
had needed greater speeds than that of light, for they
must travel light years, but now this sun was coming
toward them, and already was less than two hundred
and fifty billion miles away! They would pass that
other star in about seventy years now. That was
scarcely more than a third of a man’s lifetime. In that
short time they must prepare to move!

The swift agitation for action had met with terrific
resistance. They were satisfied, why move? And in-
difference is the most crushing form of resistance.

But, while some men devoted their time to arousing
the people to help, others were doing the work that
had not been done for many, many millenniums. The
laboratories were reopened, and the pageant once more
showed humming workshops as the different machines
were tested. They were making things that were new
once more, not merely copying old designs.

Their search had been divided into sections, search
for weapons with which to defend themselves in case
they were attacked, and search for the real principles
of their space ships. They had the machines which
they could imitate, but they did not understand them.
The third section was less successful. They were also
searching for the secrets of the apparatus their fore-
fathers had used to swing the planets in their orbits,
to move worlds about at will. They wanted to be able
to take not only their space ships, but their planets as
well, when they went to settle on these other worlds
and in this other solar system.

Long years must be spent in erecting their cities,
but if they could bring with them their old homes,
they would have places to live in in the meantime.
Through the ages their population had been dwindling.
Fewer and fewer people had been born, until at last,
there were but four of the original planets inhabited.
These people must all be moved in the short period,
while the two suns swung about each other, locked for
a short while in the mighty embrace of their gravities.
Could they move a world, it would be far easier.

But the search for this moving was unrewarded. The
secret of the space-ships they learned readily, and Taj
Lamor had designed these mighty ships below there
from that knowledge. Their search for weapons had
been satisfied, they had found one weapon, one of the
deadliest that their ancestors had ever invented, but the
one weapon in which they were most interested, the
mighty force barrage that could swing a world in its
flight through space, was lost. They could not find it.

They knew the principles of the driving apparatus
of their ships, and it would seem but a matter of en-
largement to drive a planet as a ship, but they knew
that was impossible; the terrific forces needed would
easily be produced by their apparatus, but there was no
way to apply them to the planet. If applied in any
spot, the planet would be torn asunder by the immense
strain. They must apply the strain equally to the
entire planet. Their problem was one of application
of power. The rotation of the planet made it impossible
to use a series of driving apparatus, even could these
be anchored, but again the sheer immensity of the
task made it impossible.

They were ready to start now on an expedition
of exploration!

Taj Lamor gazed down again at the great ships in
the plaza below. Their mighty bulks seemed to dwarf
even the huge buildings about them. Yet these ships

were his — for he had learned their secrets and designed
them, and now he was to command them as they flew
out across space in that flight to the distant star.

He turned, and stepped into a little torpedo-shaped
car that rested on the metal roof behind him. A
moment later the little ship rose, and then slanted
smoothly down over the edge of the roof, to drop
swiftly straight for the largest of the ships below.
This was the flagship. Nearly a hundred feet greater
was its diameter, and its mile and a quarter length of
gleaming metal hull gave it nearly three hundred feet
greater length than that of the ships of the line.

This expedition was an expedition of exploration.
They were prepared to meet any conditions on that
other world, no atmosphere, no water, no heat, or even
an atmosphere of poisonous gases they could rectify,
for their transmutation apparatus would permit them
to change those gases, or modify them; they knew
well how to supply heat, but they knew, too, that that
sun would warm some of its planets sufficiently.

T AJ LAMOR was to lead this expedition, for he was
their foremost scientist and their ablest citizen. He
had designed these ships, and they had shown them-
selves a credit to their designer. Already many of
them were in sei-vice gathering the materials of their
world for transport. Now their great battle fleet of
Space was ready to start.

Taj Lamor sent his little machine quickly toward a
great door in the side of the gigantic interstellar ship
and lowered it gently to the floor of the huge machine.
Quickly a man stepped forward, opened the door for
the leader, saluting quickly as he stepped out; then
the car was run swiftly aside, to be placed with thou-
sands of other cars like it. Each of these cars was
to be used by a separate investigator, when they reached
those other worlds, and there were men aboard who
would use them.

Taj Lamor made his way to a door in the side of a
great metal tube that threaded the length of the huge
ship. Opening the door he sat down in a little torpedo-
shaped metal car that shot swiftly forward as the
double door shut softly, with a low hissing of escaping
air. A moment and the car was shooting through the
tube, then gently it slowed, and came to rest opposite
another door. Again came the hissing of gas as the
twin doors opened, and Taj Lamor stepped out, now-
well up in the nose of the titanic, interstellar cruiser.
As he stepped out of the car the outer and inner doors
closed, and, ready now for other calls, the car remained
at this station. On a ship so long, some means of com-
munication faster than walking was essential. This
little pneumatic railway was the solution.

As Taj Lamor stepped out of the tube, a half-dozen
men, who had been talking among themselves, snapped
quickly to attention. Following the plans of the long-
gone armies of their ancestors, the men of the ex-
pedition had been trained to strict discipline, with
Taj Lamor the nominal Commander-in-Chief, although
another man, Kornal Sorul, was their actual com-
mander. Taj Lamor told them what he thought the
best action; these other men put it into execution.

Taj Lamor proceeded at once to his Staff Cabin in
the very nose of the great ship. Just above him there
was another room, walled on all sides by that clear,
glass-like material, the control cabin. Here the pilot
sat, directing the motions of the mighty ship of space.

Taj Lamor pushed a small button on his desk and
in a moment a grey disc before him suddenly glowed
dimly, then flashed into sudden life and full, natural
color. As though looking through a glass porthole, Taj
Lamor saw the interior of' the Communications Room.
The Communications Officer was gazing at a similar
disc in which Taj Lamor’s features were imaged.

THE BLACK STAR PASSES

497

“Have they reported from Ohmur, Lorsand and
Throlus, yet, Morlus Tal?” asked the commmander.

‘‘They are reporting now, Taj Lamor, and we will be
ready within two and one-half minutes. The plans are
as before; we are to proceed directly toward the Yellow
Star, meeting en route?”

"The plans are as before. Start as soon as you are
ready, Morlus Tal.”

The disc faded, the colors died, and it was grey
again. Taj Lamor pulled another small lever on the
little stand before him, and the disc changed, glowed,
and was steady, and now' he was watching the prepara-
tions of leaving, as from an eye on the top of the great
ship. Men W'ere streaming swiftly in ordered columns
all about and into the great ships. In an incredibly
short time they were in, and the great doors closed
behind them. Suddenly there came a low, dull hum
thr:urh the disc, and the sound mounted quickly, till
ah the world seemed humming to that dull note; they
were ready to leave! The w'arning was sounding.

Suddenly the city around him seemed to blaze in
a riot of colored light! The mighty towering bulks of
the huge metal buildings
were polished and bright,
and now, as the millions of
lights, every color of the
spectrum, flashed over all
the city* from small ma-
chines in the air, on the
ground, in windows, their
great metal walls glistening
with a wondrous riot of
Sowing color. Then there
WaS a trembling through all
the giant frame of- the
mrghty ship. In a moment
it was gone, and the titanic
mu.;; glistening metal was
rising smoothly, quickly to
the great roof of their
world above them. On an
even keel the ship climbed straight up, then suddenly
it leapt forward like some great bird of prey sighting
its victim, and the great mass was darting swiftly
forward. The ground beneath sped swiftly back, and
behind them there came a long line of ships, a great
mass of metal that swiftly formed behind them. They
were heading toward the giant airlocks that would
let them out into space. There was but one lock large
enough to permit so huge a ship to pass out. They
must go nearly half around their world to reach it.
On three other worlds there were other giant ships
racing thus to meet beyond their solar system. There
were fifty ships coming from each planet; two hundred
mighty ships in all made up this Armada of Space,
two hundred gargantuan interstellar cruisers. These
ships were intended as cargo and battleships. They
were well adapted for this interstellar exploration.

One by one the giant ships passed through the air-
lock and out into space. Here they quickly reformed
as they moved off together, each ship falling into its
place in the mighty cone formation, with the flagship
of Taj Lamor at the head. On they rushed through
space, their speed ever mounting. Each man seemed
laboring under the load of three gravities and of four
gravities as the ships flashed on at ever higher speeds.
Taj Lamor watched his little speed indicator move
across the dial. One hundred miles per second they
attained before they passed out of the gravitational
field of their little planet, and had gotten so far from
their home, that its gravitation was negligible, and it
was two hundred miles per second when they passed
the orbit of the next outer planet. The pointer moved

steadily on across the dial as the speed mounted ever
higher. From two hundred to three hundred — then,
before they left the outer bounds of their own system,
the needle was wavering as it passed the 1,000 mark.
Suddenly there seemed to leap out of nowhere another
mass of shining machines that flew swiftly beside
them. Like some strange, shining ghosts, these ships
seemed to materialize instantly beside and behind their
fleet. They fell in quickly in their allotted position
behind the Flagship’s squadron. One — two more fleets
appeared thus suddenly in the dark, and together the
ships were flashing on through space to their goal of
glowing fire ahead !

A thousand — a million miles they traveled over —
and Taj Lamor was standing quietly at the window of
his Staff Cabin, looking steadily out at the growing
sea of flame. Already it was visible as a disc of flame.
They had left their planet scarcely an hour ago, but at
their present rate of 7,000 miles each second, that meant
twenty-five millions of miles.

Long the man stood gazing out through the window ;
then he turned, and walked slowly to the door, and

started out to investigate
the ship. He was not the
commander now, but the
scientist, the one designer
and creator of this thing of
power and speed and might.

H OUR after hour, day
after day the ships
flashed on through the aw-
ful void, the utter silence
relieved by the communica-
tions between themselves
and the slowly weakening
communications from the
far-off home.

But as those signals from
home grew steadily weaker,
the sun before them grew
steadily larger. At last the men began to feel the heat
of those rays, to realize the energy that mighty sea of
flame poured forth into space, and steadily they watched
it grow nearer.

Then came a day when they could make out clearly
the dim bulk of a planet before them, and for long
hours they slowed down the flying speed of the ships.
They had mapped the system before them ; there were
eight planets of varying sizes, some on the near and
some on the far side of the sun. There were but three
on the near side, one that seemed the outermost of the
planets, about 35,000 miles in diameter, was directly
in their path, while there were two more much nearer
the sun, about 100,000,000 and 70,000,000 miles distant
from it, each about seven to eight thousand miles in
diameter, but they were on opposite sides of the sun,
one well to the west of the sun, and one well to the east.
It was decided to split the expedition into two parts;
one part was to go to the eastern planet, and one to
the western planet. Taj Lamor was to lead his group
of 100 machines to the western planet at once, for this
outermost planet was not of immediate interest, for it
revolved at a distance of nearly 3,000,000,000 miles
from its sun, and its temperature could be but a few
degrees above absolute zero. Their crystal roofs would
have to come first ere life could be established on it,
and these would require time to construct. These other,
warmer planets, were of more immediate interest.

The great ships were slanting down over a mighty
globe of water, it seemed. They were well in the north-
ern hemisphere, and they had come near the planet first
over a vast stretch of rolling ocean. These men had

498

AMAZING STORIES QUARTERLY

looked in wonder at such vast quantities of the fluid.
To them it was a precious liquid, that must be made
artificially, and was to be conserved, yet here they saw
such vast quantities of natural water as seemed im-
possible. Still, their ancient books had told of such
things, and of other strange things, things that must
have been wondrously beautiful, though they were
so old now, these records, that they were regarded much
as we would regard the stories of gods and goddesses
walking on the Earth.

Yet here were the strange proofs! They saw great
masses of fleecy water vapor, huge billowy things that
seemed solid, but were blown lightly about in the wind.
And natural air! The atmosphere extended for hun-
dreds of miles off into space, and now, as they came
closer to the surface of this world it was dense, and
the sky above them was a beautiful blue, not black,
even where there were no stars. The great sun, so
brilliantly yellow when seen from space, was now a
brilliant globe of reddish-yellow.

And, as they came near land, they looked in wonder
at mighty masses of rock and soil that threw their
shaggy heads high above the surrounding terrain, huge
masses of solid soil that rose high, like waves in water,
till they towered in solemn grandeur miles into the
air ! What a sight for these men of a world so old that
age long erosion had washed away the last traces of
hills, and filled in the last traces of the valleys!

In awe they looked down at the mighty rocky masses,
as the titanic machines swung low over the moun-
tains, gazing in wonder at the green masses of the
vegetation, strange vegetation it was to them, for they
had grown only mushroom-like cellulose products, and
these mainly for ornament, for all their food was arti-
ficially made in huge factories.

Then they came over a little mountain lake, a body
of water scarcely large enough to berth one of these
huge ships, but high in the clear air of the mountains,
fed by the eternal snows that thawed, and flowed down
to it. It was a magnificent sapphire in a setting green
as emerald, a sparkling lake of clear water, deep as
the sea, high in a cleft in the mountains, the water
of some long-melted glacier.

In wonder the men looked down at these strange
sights. What a marvelous home ! But they must forge
steadily on now, they must find a place to land; then
the men would be dispatched to investigate, and to
map the world.

Steadily the great machines proceeded, and at last
the end of the giant mountain was reached, and they
came to a great plain. But that plain was strangely
marked off with squares, as regular as though plotted
with a draftsman’s square. This world must be in-
habited !

Suddenly Taj Lamor saw strange specks off on the
far horizon to the south, specks that seemed to grow
in size with terrific velocity; these must be ships, the
ships of these people ! They would defend their home.
Now, in this moment, Taj Lamor must make his de-
cision. Was he to withdraw and let these people alone,
or was he to stand and fight for this world, this won-
derfully beautiful home, a home that his race could
live in for millions of years to come? He had debated
this question many times before in his mind, and he
had decided. There would never, never be another chance
for his people to gain a new home. They must fight.

Swiftly Taj Lamor gave his orders. If resistance
was offered, if any attack was made, they were to fight
back at once, unhesitatingly.

The strangers’ ships had grown swiftly larger to the
eye, but still, though near now, they seemed too small
to worry about. These giant interstellar cruisers were
certainly invulnerable to ships so small; their mere

size would give them protection! These ships were
scarcely as long as the diameter of the smaller of the
interstellar ships — a bare two hundred and fifty feet
for the largest.

T HE interstellar cruisers halted in their course, and
waited for the little ships to draw near. They were
fast, for they drew alongside quickly, and raced to the
front of the flagship. There was one small one that
was painted white, and on it there was a large white
banner, flapping in the wind of its passage. The rest of
the ships drew off as this came forward, and stopped,
hanging motionless before the control room of the
giant machine. There were men inside — three strange
men — but they were gesturing now, motioning that the
giant machine settle to the ground beneath. Taj Lamor
was considering whether or not to thus parley with
the strangers, when suddenly there leapt from it a
beam of clear white — a beam that was directed toward
the ground, then swung up toward the ship in a swift
arc! In an instant there were a dozen swift leaping
beams of pale red reaching out to that ship, and as they
reached it, the ray that had been sweeping up to touch
the ship, was suddenly still, and for an instant the
ship hung still in the air; then it began to swing
crazily, like the pendulum of a clock, and then it was
swinging completely over — and with a sickening lurch
it was speeding swiftly, and ever faster for the soil
of the plain nearly five miles below. But in an instant
it was over and there was a little crater in the soft
soil. The ship had driven itself nearly twenty feet
into the ground.

But the rays had not stopped with the little ship;
they had reached rapidly out to the other machines,
trying to reach them before they could bring those
strange white rays to bear on them. Their cruisers
must win, for they carried dozens of projectors, but
they might be damaged; they might be forced to stay
here. They must defeat those strangers quickly. The
rays were lashing out swiftly, but almost before they
had started, all the other ships, a hundred in all, were
in action, and the flagship was darting swiftly up
and away from the battle; their leader must be safe.
Below, those pale red rays were taking a swift toll of
the little ships, and nearly twenty of them rolled sud-
denly over, and dashed to destruction far below.

But now they were in swift darting motion. The
little ships, through their small size, were able to avoid
the rays of the larger interstellar cruisers, and as their
torpedo-shaped hulls flashed quickly out of the way of
the rays, they began to fight back. They had been
taken utterly by surprise. They were a little late in
entering the battle, but they evidently intended to make
up for lost time, for the little fleet of thirty-five
ships went into action with an abandon and swift-
ness that made the gigantic interstellar liners helpless
through its very speed. They were in a dozen places
at once, leaping as swiftly forward as sidewise or
vertically. They dodged and twisted, unharmed, out
of the way of the deadly red beams, and were as hard
to hit as some dancing feather suspended over an air
jet, except that here there was intelligent direction
keeping them always in the least accessible places, and
these pilots showed a positive genius in thinking up
new ways of making their ships difficult targets.

And if the pilots were skillful in avoiding enemy rays,
their ray men were as accurate in placing theirs. But
then, with a target considerably larger than the pro-
verbial barn door, not so much skill was necessary.
They had only to touch those ships, and they began
to realize that size did not make them invulnerable.

For these smaller vessels were the ships of Earth.
The people of that dark star had entered our solar

THE BLACK STAR PASSES

499

system quite unannounced, except that they had been
seen in passing the orbit of Mars, for a ship had been
out there in space, going slowly, steadily out toward
Neptune, and the great interstellar cruisers, flashing in
across space, away from that frigid planet, had not
seen the tiny wanderer, which was slowly climbing
its long way across the two and three quarter billion
miles from Earth to Neptune. But he had seen
those mighty bulks, and had sent his message and
warning out on the ether, racing the mighty machines
in, and going at a speed nothing can exceed, and few
things equal, and the radio message had been a warning
to the men of Earth. They had relayed it to Venus,
and the ships that had gone there had received an
equally warm reception, and were even now finding
their time fully occupied trying to beat off the Inter-
planetary Patrol.

These ships were Arcot Molecular Motion director
ships, ships that drew their power from the heat
energy of the air around them. Out in space they
were slow, for there was no heat, but in the planetary
atmosphere, they easily matched the speed of the
Interstellar cruisers.

It was Arcot who had developed the principle of
these machines not a full three years ago, and it was
Arcot who had, with the aid of this principle, made the
first interplanetary flight in the history of the solar
system, going to Venus. The bonds of friendship be-
tween the two planets had grown swiftly in those
three years, and they were already linked by many reg-
ular space lines. These ships made the trips as fre-
quently as the relative positions of the planets per-
mitted, but during the oppositions of the planets, when
they were on opposite sides of the sun, they were neces-
sarily discontinued.

The principle of these machines was simple in theory',
but it had taken much work to bring it into practice.
It had long been known that the molecules of any warm
body were in rapid motion. In a gas the molecular
motion amounted to several miles a second at times,
and this speed was always relative to the speed of
the mass of the body. Should the molecules of any
body all start to move in the same direction, at the
same time, the result is, of course, that the entire body
is moving in this direction. Arcot had developed a
peculiar high frequency field that caused all the mole-
cules influenced by it to move in the same direction.
This field actually converted the heat-energy of any
body into mechanical energy, the energy of heat, the
random motion of the individual molecule, was changed
into the ordered motion of the mass, and the
energy was applied as desired. It could be made to
drive a ship forward by merely putting such an ap-
paratus on the sides, filling a small tank with helium
or hydrogen gas, since the molecules of these gases
move the most rapidly for a given temperature, and to
the copper tank attaching copper fins which carried
heat very well. These fins would pick up heat from the
air about. The molecules of the gas are all made to
move toward the forward end of the tank, and there
they are stopped by the mass of the ship, which resists
this impulse. The molecules are then standing still
relative to the ship. But motionless molecules have a
definite physical significance; they mean that the body
is at absolute zero, and any one who has worked with
very cold liquids, such as liquid helium, or hydrogen,
knows to his sorrow that these very cold substances will
collect heat from the surrounding air at an amazing
rate. The effect is the same in the case of the helium in
the copper tank; it is solidified at once, since its mole-
cules are motionless, and immediately it absorbs heat
from the air, as solid helium always will. This heat
makes the molecules move once more, and they are again

promptly brought to a stop. Thus more energy is
abstracted from the air, and the molecules are again
started moving.

All this is repeated thousands of times a second,
and the result is a steady hammering on the copper
tank. This steady hammering is what we know as a
gas pressure, and the pressure may easily amount to
thousands of tons. The result is that the ship is
rapidly put into motion, and the molecules tend to
drive it ever faster. No matter how fast the ship goes,
the molecules, in order to be “warm” must have a ran-
dom motion of a certain number of feet per second.
They will always want to go a little faster than the ship,
so no matter what the speed of the ship, the accelera-
tion will be constant.

The power obtainable from these power-units was
surprising even to experienced engineers. They were,
by the very nature of them, ideal for aircraft. They
could be made perfectly streamlined. The discs, or fins,
which served to give the copper tank a greater heat
absorbing area, were made sharp as knives, and they
cut through the air with scarcely any resistance. Other
power units, mounted vertically, made it possible to
hold the ship level in the air without wings. These
same units, mounted laterally, gave the ship even
greater flexibility.

A LL these features had been combined in the Inter-
. planetary Patrol ships, ships designed to catch
the speediest of the Air Pirates who had sprung up.
These swift ships were easily capable of 5000 miles
an hour, and at higher altitudes could make as high as
20,000 miles an hour.

The airplane was commercially non-existent now,
for with the advent of these new ships, they had im-
mediately displaced all machines using fuels. These
ships used the absolutely free energy of the sun, as
collected and stored by the Earth’s atmosphere.

Planetary exploration had started almost as soon as
the building of the first of the commercial molecular
motion ships was completed, and the inventor of the
device, Arcot, had, with his three friends, Wade, Morey
and Fuller, gone to the planet Venus. Their work
there, the aid they rendered in saving the two great
nations of Venus from destruction at the hands of a
tyrannical ruler, had helped greatly to make friend-
ships more secure.

Shortly after his return to Earth, other men in sim-
ilar machines had undertaken the longer voyages to
the other planets. The Moon had been examined at
once, and the examination of Mars followed soon after,
but the vast orbits of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and
Neptune had made the trip so long, in the compara-
tively slow vehicles, that these planets had not yet
been explored. In the depths of space it was hard to
find the energy needed to drive their ships, and their
progress against the gravity of the sun was corre-
spondingly slow. Further, the orbital velocity of the
planets themselves was so great, that it became a real
race to catch up with them. Despite the fact that the
“year” of Neptune is equal to nearly 170 of ours, the
planet actually goes with terrific speed in its orbit. It
is the vast extent of that orbit that makes the motion
of the planet seem slow.

It was one of these interplanetary exploration expe-
ditions that the people of the Black Star had encoun-
tered, and it was their warning that told Earth to be
on the lookout.

Arcot, during his brief stay on Venus, had devel-
oped the most powerful weapon that man had ever
seen in this system. He had found a means of pro-
jecting the molecular motion director field. This meant
that anything touched by this projected field, or ray,

500

AMAZING STORIES QUARTERLY

would move in a direction controlled by it, for every
molecule of any matter it touched was immediately
sent with all its velocity in whatever direction the
operator wished. The result could be made either very
constructive or very destructive. Imagine the ease
with which a workman could float a beam of steel
weighing, perhaps, twenty tons, up through the air, on
its own heat energy — energy which it absorbed from the
air — to place it where he wanted it. To do this he
need only have a little pack on his back that con-
tained the necessary apparatus, a pack weighing less
than forty-eight pounds in the commercial apparatus,
and a small hand projector. Again, imagine the same
workman, wishing to remove a hillock in order to make
a roadway. He need only direct the beam upon it,
and the entire hill would suddenly start with all the
energy of its quintillions of molecules, straight into
the air, and fall, powdered, on the ground about its
original site; or he could remove it in small chunks.

This was the commercial development.

Imagine, again, a man who is bent on destroying a
great ship — perhaps an interstellar cruiser. He need
only direct his ray against the nose of that ship, and
send the bow, using the energy of its own molecules,
crashing backwards. It will suddenly leap back upon
the rear and midships portions of the huge machine,
striking them as though driven by some immense
hammer, weighing millions of tons, and moving several
miles a second! The result is obvious — utter wreck-
age, a twisted mass of torn girders, broken plates, and
bent beams. Nothing could resist it for the simple
reason that, no matter how big it was, no matter how
strong it was, it crushed itself with its own size and
tore itself with its own strength. Size was no im-
munity against this weapon, as the people of the Black
Star quickly learned. They received a most hearty
reception and a great send-off!

The great interstellar ships were far too long, too
clumsy to be maneuvered as easily as were their tiny
opponents. They could only stand and receive. They
found it most difficult to deliver even so much as a
single blow, once those little machines got under way,
for the interplanetary Patrolmen were skilled in ray
dueling. Regular practice was held, using certain
harmless rays to simulate the deadly molecular di-
rector ray. Once they realized the menace of these
rays, they kept carefully out of their vicinity.

T HE battle was brief, for Taj Lamor, in his ma-
chine high above, saw that they were outclassed,
and ordered them to withdraw at once. Scarcely ten
minutes had elapsed, yet they lost twenty-two of their
giant ships in wreckages.

The expedition that had gone to Venus reported a
similarly active greeting. It was decided at once that
they should proceed cautiously to the other planets, to
determine which were inhabited and which were not,
and to determine the chemical and physical conditions
on each.

The ships formed again out in space, the other side
of the sun, however, and started at once in compact
formation for Mercury.

Their observations were completed without further
mishap, and they set out for their distant home, their
number depleted by forty-one ships, for nineteen had
fallen on Venus.

In the meantime the Terrestrian and Venerian gov-
ernments were already preparing vigorously for fur-
ther inroads. It was agreed at once that this was to
be a war of science, and that the men they must call
in were the scientists. These conclusions were reached
at once, and agreements were immediately drawn up
between the two worlds to join forces, and thus elim-

inate all unnecessary motions. It was obvious that they
would need more ships. However, they must first have a
scientific report on the ships that had fallen there in
western Canada, for it might be that it was possible
to find some ray or force that would make them help-
less, and they might find also the secret of that death
ray that they had met. They must first have the scien-
tists investigate.

The first scientists they thought of were the men
who had made possible this so successful resistance:
Arcot and Morey and Wade. These men they knew
would all be working in the Arcot Laboratories, and
they called there at once. Arcot and his friends were
to start for that battlefield at once.

“Wade — bring Morey and come on out to the machine
on the roof at once — I’ll be waiting — that was a call
from Washington. I will explain as soon as you get
there,” called Arcot as he snapped the switch of the
televisophone shut. He had answered the call, and
given the reply in the name of the three.

On the roof Arcot at once moved the hangar doors
open, and got into the five-passenger molecular-motion
ship inside. The sleek, streamlined sides seemed to
speak of power and speed. This special model was
slightly faster than most machines, and as it was a
research model, designed for their experiments, it car-
ried many mechanisms that others did not, automatic
controls that were being developed, among them. These
had not yet reached a stage of practicability for the pri-
vate machine, so there were none others in existence.
They were still in the laboratory stage, but they ad-
mitted of higher speed, for no human being could con-
trol the ship as accurately as these.

It took them a little less than a quarter of an hour
to make the 5,000-mile trip from New York to the
battlefield of Canada. Arcot and his friends were
passed through the lines at once, and they settled to
the ground beside one of the huge ships that lay half
buried in the soil. The force of the impact had splashed
the solid soil as a stone wall will splash soft mud, and
around the ship there was a little ridge of earth.
Arcot looked at the titanic proportions of these ships
from space, and turned to his friends:

“We can investigate that wreck on foot, but I think
that it will be far more sensible to see what we can
do with the car. That ship is certainly a mile or more
long, and we would spend more time walking than in
investigation. I suggest, therefore, that we see if there
is not room enough for the car inside. That beats even
those huge Kaxorian planes for size. I sure would
have liked to mix it in the fight they must have had —
nice little things to play with, aren’t they?” grinned
Arcot as they looked at the mighty bulk of glistening
metal, twisted and distorted now, but still holding the
lines of terrific power about it.

“It would make a nice playmate,” agreed Wade as
he looked at the rows of wicked-looking projectors along
the sides of the metal hull, “and I wonder if there
might not be more in there ? If there are, the size of the
ship would prevent them showing themselves very
quickly, and since they can’t move the ship, it seems
to me that they will begin to be noticeable in a short
time. Probably, with the engines stopped, their main
rays are useless, but they would doubtless have hand
weapons. I am highly in favor of entering the car.
We carry a molecular director ray, so if the way is
blocked, we can make a new one. Look over there —
that ship is still flaming — it is a reddish flame — but
almost colorless. It certainly looks like a gas flame,
with a bit of calcium in it. That atmosphere looks
almost as if it were combustible. If we should do
any exploring in the ship, I suggest that we use alti-
tude suits — they will be good in any case.”

THE BLACK STAR PASSES

501

There were three or four of the great wrecks flaming
now, evolving great long tongues of colorless, intensely
hot flame. Several of the ships had been only slightly
damaged; one had been brought down by a beam that
had torn the entire tail of the ship free, leaving the
bow in good condition. Apparently this machine had
not fallen far; perhaps the pilot had maintained par-
tial control of the ship, his power at last, utterly failing
when only a comparatively short distance from Earth.
This was rather well to one side of the field, however,
and we decided to investigate it later. Since the ships
were scattered over an area perhaps twenty-five miles
square, it meant a considerable trip to that other ship.

This ship had crashed nose first, and the nose had
been utterly ruined, then the tail of the ship had fallen
horizontally, after the lengthwise members gave way.
The car was maneuvered cautiously into the great hole
at the nose of the ship, and they entered the mighty
vessel slowly. There were many heavy girders sticking
out at odd angles, any one of which seemed quite capable
of wrecking the little ship, so they turned on a powerful
spotlight. It soon became evident that there was little
to fear from any living enemies, and they proceeded
more rapidly. Certainly no creature could live after the
shock that had broken these huge girders! Several
times huge beams blocked their path, and they were
forced to use the molecular director beam to bend them
out of the way.

“Man, but those beams do look as if they were built
permanently! I would hate to ram the machine against
one of them ! We never would get through here on foot,
and without this ray, we wouldn’t get through here any-
way. Look at that one — just see how it has bent — if
that has anywhere near the strength of steel, just think
of the force it took to do that!” said Arcot as they
stopped a moment to clear away a huge member that
was bent across their path. “But there it goes — its
molecules are pulling it around. I hate to use this too
freely, though — it may put some strain on another
girder, and we may have the whole structure tumbling
in on us!”

At last they had penetrated to the long tube that led
through the length of the ship — the communication
tube. This admitted the small ship easily, and they
moved swiftly along till they came to what they believed
to be about the center of the original ship. Here Arcot
proposed that they step out and see what there was to
be seen. As they had been the first party of scientists
to arrive, they could only guess at what they would find.

“I don’t know what we’ll find, fellows, but I think the
engines should be in about the center of the ship. The
machine seems to have landed on one side rather than
on its keel, and I suspect that the sudden shock has torn
the engines loose, but we may find something of inter-
est. There is what seems to be a doorway there. I
suggest that we* stop, leave the ship here, and enter on
foot. We can wear altitude suits and carry our ray
pistols.”

The others agreed, and they at once put on their alti-
tude suits, heavy rubberized canvas suits designed to be
worn outside the ship when at high altitude, or even in
space. They were supplied with oxygen tanks that
would keep the wearer alive for about six hours. Unless
the atmosphere of the ships was exceeding corrosive, the
men would be safe.

They decided that if one was to go, they might as
well all go, for three with the ray pistols would be safer
than splitting the party up. Also there might be heavy
work to do, where two ray pistols would be needed.

T HEY found their first difficulty in opening the door.

It was an automatic door, and was easily opened
by compressed air — or dynamite, apparently. They

finally were forced to tear it out with a ray. It was im-
possible to move it in any other way. The door was in
what was now the floor, so the walking was bad.

They let themselves through the narrow opening of
the door one at a time, and landed on the sloping wall
of the corridor beyond.

“Lucky this wasn’t a big room, or we would have had
a nice drop to the far wall!” said Wade. The suits were
equipped with a thin vibrating diaphragm that made
speech easy, but Wade’s voice came through with a
queerly metallic ring, for the diaphragm had a denfiite
period of vibration, and all tones were somewhat dis-
torted.

“No, that wouldn’t be so nice, but we can’t stay here.
We may as well start. There seems to be a defect in
the lighting system; it certainly is dark. Wade, use the
hand light, will you? You were wise in picking it up.
I had an idea that we would have all the light we needed
— I don’t know just how I got the impression — but I did.
Look — there is a corridor sloping off to the right —
down, I should say. Be careful when you go in, for if it
is long, or opens into a long room, you will be due for a
nasty fall,” said Arcot, pointing to a dark hole in the
wall, as Wade’s hand-light reached out in the darkness.
The place was too big to light adequately.

“It does seem to be long,” said Wade as he turned his
light into it, “but it also seems to be rough. I think we
can do it. I notice that you brought a rope, Arcot; I
think we can use it to advantage. I’ll go first, unless
someone else wants to go.”

“You go first? But I don’t know — if we are all going,
I guess you had better, at that. It would take two or-
dinary men to lower a big hulk like you. On the other
hand, if anybody is going to stay, you’re delegated as
elevator boy !”

Wade was a fragile little fellow of about six feet four,
and would certainly make a very respectable load for any
one, or any two. Arcot, however, measured six feet two,
and with the aid of Morey, he should certainly have
been able to swing the problem, for Morey was six feet
six, though not quite as heavily built as Wade.

“Still,” continued Arcot, “I think none of us will need
to hold the weight of the others with the rope. I have
an idea that may work out very nicely. Wade, will you
get three fairly good-sized pieces of metal, something we
can tie a rope to ? I think we can get down here without
the help of anyone else. Morey, will you cut the rope in
three pieces while I held Wade tear loose that girder?”

Arcot refused to divulge his secret till his prepara-
tions were complete, but worked quickly and efficiently.
With the aid of Wade, he soon had three short mem-
bers, and taking the rope that Morey had prepared, tied
a length of rope to each piece of metal, leaving a piece
of rope about twenty feet long hanging from each.
Now he carefully tested the knots, and the holds the
ropes had on the metal to make sure they would not slip.

“Now, let’s see what we can do.” He took a piece of
the rope and put a small loop in one end, thrust his left
wrist through this, and grasped the rope firmly with his
hand. Then he drew his ray pistol, and adjusted it care-
fully for direction of action. The trigger gave him con-
trol over power. Finally he turned the ray on the block
of metal at the other end of the rope. At once the metal
pulled vigorously, and taughtened the rope, then, as
Arcot increased the power, he was dragged slowly across
the floor.

“Ah — it works. Come on, boys, hitch your wagon to
a star, and we will go on with the investigation. This is
a new, double action parachute. It lets you down easy,
and pulls you up easier! I think we can go where we
want now, only don’t get nervous and turn on the full
power of the ray, or you will be minus one good arm,
and perhaps your life.”

502

AMAZING STORIES QUARTERLY

With Arcot’s simple brake, they lowered themselves
into the corridor one at a time, for they must not let the
ray play on each other, as it inevitably would were one
above the other. The ray was fatal to any one it
touched.

Wade went first with the light, then came Morey, then
Arcot.

The scene that lay before them was one of colossal
destruction. They had indeed stumbled on the engine
room. They could not hope to illuminate its vast extent
with their little hand-light, but they could gain some
idea of its magnitude, and of its original layout. The
floor, now at a steep angle, was torn up in many places,
showing great, massive beams, torn and twisted like so
many wires, while the heavy floor plates were crumpled
like used paper. Everywhere the room seemed covered
with a film of metal, shiny and white, it looked like sil-
ver, and, after a brief examination, they decided it was
silver, scattered broadcast over the walls of the room. It
was some time before they could understand its source.

“Oh — look — Arcot — Wade — that’s where the silver
came from!” Morey was pointing toward the dim ceil-
ing, and as Wade turned the light in that direction they
too saw. There was a network of heavy bars running
across the roof, great bars of solid silver, fully three
feet thick, but in one section there was a hole, as if
someone had sent a disintegration ray against them, for
not only were they gone, but there was a hole in the
metal roof above, a hole that had plainly been fused, as
had the great silver bars.

“Lord. — bus bars — three feet thick — what nice engines
they must have! Look at the way those were blown
out ! They were short circuited by the crash, just before
the generator went out, and they were just volatilized!
Some juice behind them!” Arcot looked in wonder at
the heavy metal bars. “Keep the light up there, I’m
going to try to investigate.”

Arcot took a shorter hitch on his rope, and floated up
to the roof, examining the heavy bars. He looked at
them for a moment, then quickly he lowered himself.
They had just been fused by the current of electricity,
he was assured. They had barely entered the great
room. They lowered themselves to the dim, far side,
where they had been able only to distinguish vast lumps
of metal. The distance must have been two hundred
feet across. Carefully they lowered themselves, and
gingerly stood on the piled masses of wrecked machines.

A careful examination was impossible; they were
wrecks, but Arcot did see that they seemed mainly to be
giant electrical machines of standard types, but on a
scale gargantuan. There w r ere titanic masses of wrecked
metal, iron and silver, for with these men silver seemed
to replace copper, though nothing could replace iron and
its magnetic uses.

“They are just electrical machines, I guess,” said
Arcot at last. “But what a size! They seem wholly
electrical, don’t they, Wade?”

“I have been looking the mass over, and they do, but
there are just two things that bother me. Come here.”
As Arcot jumped over, nearly suspended by his ray pis-
tol, Wade directed his light on a small machine that had
fallen in between the cracks in the giant mass of broken
generators. It was a little thing, apparently housed in a
glass case. There was only one difficulty with that as-
sumption. There was a large cast iron base of a gen-
erator lying on it, made of metal perhaps two feet thick,
and that metal was cracked where it rested on the case,
and the case, made of material an inch and a half thick,
was only slightly dented.

“Whewwww — that’s a nice kind of glass to have! I
wonder if we can’t lay our hands on some and examine
it? Oh — I wonder — yes, it must be! There is a win-
dow in the side up there toward what was the bow that

seemed to me to be the same stuff. It is buried about
three feet in solid earth, so I imagine it must be.”

The three made their way at once to where they had
seen the window. The frame was evidently steel, or
some such alloy, and it was twisted and bent under the
blow, for this was evidently the outer wall, and the im-
pact of landing had flattened the rounded side like an old
can. But that “glass” window was quite undisturbed!
There was, as a further proof, a large granite rock lying
against it on the outside, which was not remarkable,
except that the big rock had been made into little ones
by the crash, quite as effectively as could be done by
anyone sentenced to hard labor. The window was tough,
to say the least.

“Say — that’s some building material! Just look at
that granite rock— smashed into sand ! Yet the window
is scarcely scratched ! Look how the frame that held it
is torn — just torn, not broken. I wonder if we can tear
it loose altogether? I’ll take my ray pistol and try it
from here, but if it comes loose we will have a shower
of stones and dirt, so look out!” said Arcot, stepping
forward. There was a thud as his metal bar crashed
down when the ray was shut off. Then, as the others
got out of the way, he stepped toward the window and
turned his ray on it. More and more power was used,
till suddenly there was a rending crash, and they saw
only a leaping column of earth, and sand, and broken
granite flying up through the hole in the steel shell.
There was a sudden violent crash, then a moment later a
second equally violent crash as the window, having flown
up to the “ceiling” came thumping back to the floor.

“Wait a moment till the dust settles, and we will see
what our prize looks like,” called Arcot over the din of
falling stones and dirt. He had jumped back as soon as
the window came loose, but nevertheless he had collected
a nice little lump on his head from a falling stone. The
altitude suit had offered considerable protection, but he
decided that he might have done better, as he rubbed
his head rather ruefully.

AT last the dust had, to a large extent, settled, and
A they came forward, looking for the window. They
found it, somewhat buried by the rubbish, lying off to
one side. Arcot bent down to tilt it and sweep off the
dirt ; he grasped it with one hand, and pulled. The win-
dow remained where it was. He grasped it with both
hands and pulled harder. The window remained where
it was.

“Uh — say, lend a hand will you, Wade — you’re big
enough; see if you can lift it.” Together the two men
pulled, but the results were exactly nothing. That win-
dow was about three feet by two feet by one inch, mak-
ing the total volume about one-half a cubic foot, but it
certainly was heavy. They could not begin to move it.
An equal volume of lead would have weighed about four
hundred pounds, but this was decidedly more than four
hundred pounds. Indeed, the combined strength of the
three men did not do more than rock it.

“Well — it certainly is no kind of matter we know of!”
observed Morey. “Osmium, the heaviest known metal,
has a density of twenty-two and a half, which would
weigh about 730 pounds. I think we could lift that, so
this is heavier than anything we know. At least that’s
proof of a new system. Between Venus and Earth we
have found every element that occurs in the sun. These
people must have come from another star !”

“I think they do,” returned Arcot, “but for other rea-
sons. I think I know where this kind of matter exists
in the solar system, which eliminates that reason. I
think you have already seen it — in the gaseous state.
Do you remember that the Kaxorians had great reser-
voirs for storing light-energy in a bound state in their
giant planes? They had bound light, light held by the

THE BLACK STAR PASSES

503

gravitational attraction for itself, after condensing it in
their apparatus, but they had what amounted to a gas —
gaseous light. Now suppose that someone makes a light
condenser even more powerful than the one the Ka,x-
orians used, a condenser that forces the light so close to
itself, increases its density, till the photons hold each
other permanently, and the substance becomes solid. It
will be a very dense solid, and a very hard solid. It will
be matter, matter made of light — light-matter — and let
us call it a metal. You know that ordinary matter is
electricity matter, and electricity matter metals conduct
electricity readily. Now why shouldn’t our ‘light mat-
ter’ metal conduct light? It would be a wonderful sub-
stance for windows.

“But now r comes the question of moving it. We can’t
lift it, and we certainly want to examine it. We didn’t
do w'hat everyone expected us to, w'hereas all the others
probably will, and since our laboratory hasn’t been
brought here, we must take w'hat we want to the labora-
tory. It will probably save time at that. I think we are
about through here — the place is clearly quite perma-
nently demolished. We can never find what we want
here, so I think we had best return to the ship and start
to that other machine we saw that hadn’t been so thor-
oughly destroyed. Now the question is, can we move
this?”

“I think a ray may move it. Of course it may not —
but I think it will !”

“I should say it would!” said Wade, looking sugges-
tively at the dirt scattered on the floor, and the broken
window' frame.

“Not necessarily. It might have been the pressure
of the dirt on the window, though I don’t think so. But
here is the way to decide,” replied Arcot.

He drew' his ray pistol, and stepped back a bit, adjust-
ing the pistol so the ray would direct the plate straight
up. Slowly he applied the power, and as he gradually
increased it, he reached a point where the plate heaved,
then moved into the air.

“It works! Now you can use your pistol, Morey, and
direct it toward the corridor. I will send it up, and let
it fall outside, then we can pick it up later.” Morey
stepped forward, and while Arcot held it in the air with
his ray, Morey propelled it gently with his, till it was
directly under the corridor leading up. Then Arcot
gave it a sudden increase in power, and the plate scaled
suddenly upw'ard, sailing out of sight. Then, as Arcot
shut off his ray, there came to their ears a sudden crash
as the plate fell to the floor above.

The three men at once regained their ropes, and “dou-
ble action parachutes” as Arcot called them, and floated
up to the next floor. Here they w'aited till the last had
arrived, then again they started the process of moving
the plate. All went well till they came to the little car
itself. They could not use the ray on the car, for fear of
damaging the machinery. They had to use some purely
mechanical method of hoisting it in.

“I think we can do it, Wade, if you will find some
beams about ten or twelve feet long — not some girders
that weigh half a ton themselves, but some lighter beams
that we can put across our shoulders, and let you
maneuver the plate upon them. Then we will slide it
into the ship. If we have only about one-eighth of the
weight, I think we can do it. From the feel of the pistol,
I should say it weighed about 2000 pounds. Using the
wheelbarrow principle will permit us to hold it.”

The two men i-eleased their rays, and permitted the
plate to settle to the floor; then they began their search
for beams.

Beams there were in plenty — great, heavy stringers
that could have held the greatest of the modern towers
- — and there were long stringers that were designed to
prevent bending stresses, shaped, and built like bridge

members. Whoever designed this ship, they decided,
was not trying to conserve either metal or weight. They
didn’t seem to use anything smaller than a three-foot
deep I beam. It would have taken a derrick to move
the beams, let alone the plate !

Finally they solved the problem by using the molecular
director ray to swing a heavy beam into the air, then
one man pulled on the far end of it with a rope, and
swung it till it -was resting on the door of the ship on
one end, and the other rested in a hole they had torn in
the lining of the tube.

Now they maneuvered the heavy plate till it was rest-
ing on the beam ; then they released the plate, and
■watched it slide down the incline, shooting through the
open doorway of the car. In a moment the beam was
moved, and the job, which had seemed next to impossi-
ble, had been very satisfactorily done, except that the
plate had landed in the exact center of the car, and it
was rather difficult to navigate inside the machine now.
There was a slight curvature to the plate, and stepping
on it was apt to cause a fall.

The plate at last safely stowed, the three men climbed
into the car, and prepared to leave.

T HE little machine glided swiftly down the tube
through the mighty ship, finally coming out through
the huge rent that had admitted them. They rose
quickly into the air, and started at once for the head-
quarters of the government ships. The public had been
kept in ignorance, and since the section where the ships
had fallen was quite deserted, there v'ere no civilians
with their craning necks, always in the way of the opera-
tions that must be carried on now with the maximum
of efficiency. Already there were a great number of
scientists gathered about the headquarters ship. As
Arcot’s party arrived there first, they w'ere now per-
mitted to choose their field of exploration, each of the
wrecks being assigned to one group. Arcot decided at
once that the nearly perfect ship lying off to the west
would be their choice. They were at once assigned to
this machine, and two Air Patrolmen were sent with
them,

“Lieutenant Wright and Lieutenant Greer will go
with you. In case of necessity they may be able to help
considerably. Is there anything we can do to help?”
asked the Colonel.

“I believe these men are all armed with the standard
revolver, are they not?” replied Arcot. “I think we
will be considerably safer if I arm them with some of
the new director ray pistols. I have several in the tool
box of the machine. It will be all right, I suppose?”
“Certainly, Dr. Arcot. They are to be under your
commands.”

The party, increased to five now, returned to the ship,
where Arcot showed the men the details of the ray pis-
tols, and how to use them. The control for direction of
operation of the ray was rather intricate on these early
models, and required considerable explanation. The
range of even these small weapons was infinite in space,
according to theory, but in air the energy was rather
rapidly absorbed by ionization of the air, and the dis-
persion of the beam made it ineffective in space over a
range of more than thirty-five miles. However, the
larger ship projectors had a longer range, and these
w'ere certainly sufficient for their purpose as hand
w'eapons.

Again entering the little molecular motion car, they
went at once to the great hull of the fallen ship. They
inspected it cautiously from a height before going too
close, for the ship had very obviously landed without the
terrific concussion that the rest had experienced, and it
was very probable that many men in the machine were
still alive. The entire stern of the huge machine had

504

AMAZING STORIES QUARTERLY

been torn off, and apparently the ship was helpless to
rise, but there were lights glowing through the port-
holes on the side, indicating plainly that their power
had not altogether failed.

“I think we had best treat that ship with all due
respect,” remarked Wade, looking down at the
lighted windows. “They seem to have power, and
it is quite possible that they have men. The
ship is scarcely dented save where the stern was
touched by a ray. It is lucky they had
those ray projector ships! They have
been in service only about four months,
have they not, Lieutenant?”

“Just about that, sir, and they hadn’t

They used the molecidar di-
rector ray to swing a heavy
beam into the air.

gotten the ray pistols out in quantities great enough
to be distributed as yet. It was fortunate that those
ships were in service,” replied the Air Patrolman.

“I wonder why they didn’t greet us with some of their
rays,” said Morey, with a rather worried look. It did
seem that there should be some of the rays in action by
now. They were less than a mile from the ship, and
moving rather slowly.

“I have been puzzling over that myself,” replied
Arcot, “and I came to the conclusion that either the ray
projectors are fed by a separate system of power dis-
tribution, which has been destroyed, or that the men
are all dead.”

They were to learn later, in their exploration of the
ship, that the ray projectors mounted on the ship were
fed from a separate generator, which generated a spe-
cial form of alternating current wave for them. This
generator had been damaged by the ray of the terres-
trial ship that had brought them down.

The little machine was well toward the stern of the
giant now, and they lowered it till it was on a level with
the torn metal. It was plain that the ship had been
subject to some terrific tension, for it had contracted at
the tail here, as a rubber band contracts its cross sec-
tion when stretched. The great girders were stretched
and broken like wires, and the huge ribs were bent and

twisted like so many pieces of lead. The tube, which
ran the length of the ship, since it had been smaller
than the ship, and nearly as strong as the outer walls,
had suffered more. It had been drawn down to about
three-quarters its original diameter, and the ship could
not enter. They were able to remedy this, however, by
using their ray. It was soon opened out, and the machine
glided slowly into the dark tunnel. The searchlight
reaching ahead filled the metal tunnel with a myriad
deceptive reflections on the polished metal walls. The
tube was lighted up for the full length ahead of them,
and seemed empty. Cautiously, they advanced.

“Wade— Morey — where shall we stop first — I think
we had better investigate the engines first. They will
probably be of prime importance. We know where they
are. What do you say?” asked Arcot, who was at the
controls.

“I agree!” replied Wade, and Morey joined him in his
approval at once.

They ran the ship down the long tube till they again
reached the door they knew must be at the engine room
landing, and stepped out of the car, each wearing an
altitude suit. This ship had landed level, and progress
would be much easier than in the other one. They
waited a moment before opening the door from the tun-
nel into the engine room, for this opened into a narrow

THE BLACK STAR PASSES

505

corridor where but one could pass, and the corridor
opened directly into the engine room, as they learned
from investigation on the other ship. The three scien-
tists explained this quickly to the air men, and they
insisted on leading the way. They had been sent along
for the express purpose of protecting the scientists, and
it was their duty to lead.

“I was given orders to take my orders from you,” Lieu-
tenant Wright said, “but those orders also said I was to
see to it that you were protected. In this case the orders
are conflicting, and I will have to use my judgment.
You are needed by this world, and Venus too, more than
any other three men in the system, and I certainly think
we should go ahead. Besides, with the ray pistols, why
worry?”

He at last won his point, and the two officers stepped
to the door, and standing off to one side, tore it open
with a ray from their pistols. It fell with a clatter to
the rounded metal floor of the tube, and lay their vibrat-
ing noisily, but no rays of death came from beyond.
Cautiously the two officers peered around the corner of
the long corridor, then, seeing nothing, leaped to the
floor of the corridor, which was a bit higher than the
floor of the tube, and started along it. Wade came next,
then Arcot, followed by Morey, who, much to his dis-
gust, had drawn the shortest of three match sticks.

The corridor was perhaps thirty feet long, then it
opened into the great engine room. Already the men
could hear the smooth hum of powerful machines, and
see the rounded backs of metal giants.

From the engine room ahead came only the steady
low purr of the giant machines, but there was no hint of
human life. The men advanced steadily.

At last they reached the threshold of the engine room.

“Well — we haven’t seen anyone, and no one has seen
us,” said Arcot in a low voice, “but they may be behind
one of those giant engines, quite unaware of us. When
they see us they will be ready to fight. Now remember,
those weapons you have will tear loose anything they hit.
You have some appreciation of the power of those en-
gines, so don’t put them out of commission, and have
them release their energies in the neighborhood. We
wouldn’t last long, and it may be, if they are driven as I
suspect, that the Earth itself would be disturbed by
their explosion. It is only luck that some of them did
not explode when the ships were brought down.”

“But look out for those men, and get them if they
try for you!”

C AUTIOUSLY, but quickly, they stepped out into the
great room where they might be able to use all of
their rays at once, instead of one at a time. Each had
his ray pistol in his hand, ready for instant action. They
walked out into the room, glancing swiftly about them — •
and simultaneously the enemies caught sight of each
other. There were six of them, tall men, about seven
feet high, and they walked with the rather labored step
of a Venerean, but they weren’t Venereans, for their
skin and flesh was a strange white, which looked like
raw dough. The eyes of men seem to work with photo-
graphic exactitude and speed in an emergency. It seemed
to Arcot that those strange pale men were advancing at
a slow walk, and that he stood still watching them as
they slowly raised their strange ray pistols. He seemed
to notice every detail — their short, tight-fitting suit of
some elastic material that didn’t hamper their move-
ments, and their strange flesh, which just seemed to
escape being transparent, because it was too dense.
Their eyes were, strangely large, and the black spot of
the pupil in their white corneas seemed intensified by
contrast. Then they were leaping at him, and he re-
sponded with a sudden flick of his ray, as he flung him-
self to one side. Simultaneously his four companions

let their rays fly toward the Invaders. They glowed
strangely red here, more nearly resembling the reddish
hue of the enemies’ rays. It was obvious that this
atmosphere contained some other gas than our air. But
those rays were still effective, and the six Invaders
were suddenly gone, but not before they released their
own rays. On the floor of the mighty ship there lay one
man who would never rise again. Their ray had touched
Lieutenant Wright.

The Terrestrians scarcely had a chance to notice this,
for immediately there was a terrific rending crash, and
clean daylight was pouring in through a huge opening in
the wall of the ship. The men of the Invaders had been
standing before the metal wall, and when the five rays
flew at them, they had been repulsed violently, going
back toward the walls, and with them the section of the
wall had flown out.

Suddenly there was a second jarring thud, more as of
a dull explosion ; then there was a great sheet of flame
in that hole — a great wall of ruddy flame that filled the
gap, and swept rapidly in. Arcot swung up his ray
pistol, and pointed it at the mass of flaming gas. There
was a rushing column of air coming through the nar-
row corridor from the tube, but the flame went out, and
became a roaring column of gas on the outside of the
ship.

“Lieutenant, turn your ray on that hole, and keep it
there, blow that flame outside with it. You will find you
can’t put it out, but if you keep it outside the ship, it
will be all right!” The officer swung his ray at it and
relieved Arcot.

Wade and Morey were already bending over the fallen
man. They could do nothing more for him.

“I’m afraid there is nothing we can do for him, and
every moment here is dangerous. We will continue our
investigation and carry him back to the ship when we
leave. Does that suit you?” asked Arcot.

“I suppose there is nothing else to do — but why is
that gas burning so — can’t we put it out ?” asked Morey.

“Let’s get through — the discussion comes after,”
replied Arcot with a smile, and turning, they set out on
their investigation somewhat silenced by that figure
lying on the metal floor there.

The bodies of the Invaders were gone, and they could
make no examination of them now. They must hope that
some of the other investigators would find them.
That was a matter for the doctors and biologists,
anyway. They were investigating the engines, which
seemed to overtower everything about them.

Perhaps it was this that permitted the three other
engineers of the Invaders to get so close. The only
warning the Terrestrians had, was a sudden feeling of
faintness as they stepped around the corner of an en-
gine, and a slight pink haze. They leaped quickly back,
out of sight, peering around the corner in wonder.
There was nothing. Soon they saw a hand reaching out
with a ray gun; then another hand with a different ray
gun, from behind the silent engine; a sudden crash of
metal, a groan and quiet. Two other men leaped from
behind the great engine, just as the Terrestrians
dodged further back. In an instant these others were
behind another mass of metal. Arcot swung his ray up,
and was about to pull the trigger that would send the
huge engine toppling over, when he saw that it was run-
ning. He was afraid of the consequences and desisted.
Cautiously he looked around the edge of the huge mass
of metal, and watched — patiently — ah — his ray snapped
out, and there was another snapping as the ray tore off
the head of one of the Invaders, pulling him into its
range to be instantly annihilated, then spending itself
on a huge mass of metal — a mighty transformer of some
sort. The thing was so huge, that in the low concen-
tration that Arcot had used, it merely tottered a bit.

506

AMAZING STORIES QUARTERLY

Only a small portion had been touched, and the mole-
cules of this portion had not been enough to tip its
mighty weight over.

There remained one man, and Arcot saw that he was
certainly in action, for almost before he could dodge
back there came a ray of pink haziness. To Arcot’s
amazement it touched his hand, outstretched as it had
been when he fired, and a sudden numbness came over
it. The ray pistol seemed to lose all feeling of warmth
or cold. It was there; he could feel the weight of it
on the muscles of his upper arm, but his forearm was
deadened. In an instant his hand was out of the ray.
It seemed less than a second before feeling began to
return, and in less than five his hand was perfectly
normal again.

“Whew— that was a most unpleasantly narrow
squeak! It hit my hand, but I must say their ray is a
gentlemanly sort of thing. It seems to kill you al-
together, or not at all. But we had best keep our eyes
open— there goes his ray !”

A shaft of pink radiance reached about the end of
the engine, just grazing it. It would certainly be impos-
sible to step out into the open space — but they couldn’t
stay here forever. There would be reinforcements soon !
Evidently the mass of metal was opaque to the death
ray.

“Look — he is under that big metal bar — up there in
the roof — see it? I am going to pull it down; he may
get nervous and come into sight. I will be careful not
to hit anything else !” said Wade, raising his ray pistol.
Arcot leaped quickly forward, and held his trigger
release.

“Lord — don’t do that, Wade — there may be more stuff
above, or those bars may connect the different engines,
and if they are necessary, and you remove them, I don’t
care to be here. The only way is to fight it out. This
war that we have coming is going to be a war of science
and rays, the most powerful weapons of science. We
have a little individual duel here, and it is a duel of
rays, so let’s fight safe and fair. I am going to try to
get around on the other side of the machine here, and
see what I can do, while you fellows keep him occupied.”

A RCOT disappeared around the corner of the black,
l humming giant, and they w r aited anxiously for
some sign of him. They waited what seemed long years,
then suddenly the ray that had been playing at irregular
intervals across the end of the machine, swung quickly
to the other side, and simultaneously a duller red ray
seemed to leap from the machine itself toward the source
of the ray. The two rays met, and crossed, and by some
trick of fate, they seemed mutually antagonistic, and
there was a crashing arc for an instant, then both went
dead, as the apparatus that generated them were blown
out by the terrific momentary overload. But the Invader
was, apparently carrying a spare, for the Terrestrians
saw him leap toward his enemy with another projector,
trying quickly to draw it from his pocket pouch. They
turned their rays on him, a very low concentration
Wade used, hoping only to knock him over by the repul-
sion effect of the directed molecules. But Morey was not
so sure of the morals of the Invader, and used a higher
power. Just as his projector at last came free, the ray
hurled him to the left, and away from his men. He
crashed into a huge motor, and the result was not nice.

The projector had been jerked from his hand and lay
■off to one side on the floor. Arcot ran over to it, and
picking it up, called out to his friends: “You saved me
that time— I think I would have gotten him at that, if
his ray hadn’t affected mine in that way. I can’t under-
stand it; it doesn’t seem possible — but still, our ray is
really a projected electro-static oscillation, and it is

quite possible that his was of the same nature, in a
different frequency. They would have neutralization
points, and the effects on the projectors would throw
both machines out of tune, and the rays would soon
reach a common mean I suppose — I am going to take
this, and see if I can figure it out. I doubt it, though;
the essential apparatus was in that pack on his back,
just as ours was.” Arcot stopped, listening to the
Lieutenant’s call.

“We are all right now, I think — I hope there are no
more — but by all means stay where you are, and use as
little power as possible on blowing that flame outside.
It uses up the atmosphere of this ship, and I think we
better take it easy here! We’re going to investigate;
don’t hesitate to call us if anything looks queer.”

The three men at last felt that they had an oppor-
tunity to inspect the machinery. For nearly a minute
they looked about them in awestruck wonder. These
men had been the first men of Earth to see the driving
equipment of one of the titanic Kaxorian planes, and
then they felt tiny beside its mighty bulk ; but now, as
they examined this huge engine room, they realized that
even the huge plane shrank into insignificance beside
this huge interstellar cruiser.

All about them there loomed the great rounded back
of huge electric motor-generator sets of some sort.
Across all the roof there ran a network of gigantic
metal bars, apparently conductors, but so huge they
seemed, that they suggested heavy structural members.
There were several as much as three feet in diameter,
and apparently solid metal. The huge machines they
ran into loomed fully thirty feet into the air; like a
modern electric generator; they were longer than high,
huge cylinders, thirty feet in diameter, and there was a
group of four main machines that were each easily a
hundred and twenty feet long! There were four of
these giants, and many smaller machines, yet these
smaller ones would easily have constituted a complete
power supply for the average big city. Along each wall
ran a bank of huge transformers. These seemed con-
nected with the smaller machines generally, there being
four conductors leading into each of the minor units,
two intake, and apparently, two output leads, suggesting
rotary converters. The multiple units, and various types
and sizes of transformers made it obvious that many
different frequencies were needed. Some of the trans-
formers had air cores, and led to machines surrounded
with a silvery white metal, instead of the usual iron.
These, apparently, were generating current at an ex-
tremely high frequency.

“Well — they ought to have power enough. But do
you notice that those four main units have their leads
radiating in different directions? The one on the left
there seems to lead to that big power board at the front
— or better, bow. I think it would be worth investigat-
ing,” suggested Morey, pointing out the rounded back
of the huge machine he meant.

“I think there is considerable of interest in it myself.
You notice that two of the main power units are still
wmrking, but that those other two have stopped? I think
they have something directly connected with the motion
of the ship under their control. But there is one point
I think is of still greater interest. All the machines we
have seen, all the conspicuous ones, are secondary power
sources. There are no primary sources visible. I notice,
however, that those two main conduits on the roof lead
over to the right, and toward the bow. I think that it
would be interesting to investigate that,” said Arcot.
Indeed, all the huge motors, and the generators driven
by motors, were not self-sufficient sources of power.
There must be some input point, and as yet they had not
found it.

507

THE BLACK STAR PASSES

“I think that would be a good idea. I was just won-
dering what those big conduits were made of. They
certainly make nice little bus bars. They are fairly
soft, and fairly ductile, as far as I can see. I tore a
piece off of one of them, and it seems to me to be pure
silver. You are the chemist, Wade. W'jhat do you say ?”
asked Morey, passing his sample to his companion.

“I think it is — it looks like silver, but that is no proof.
I want to test it, though, and the stuff would make a
rather expensive, if efficient conduit. The copper we
use is not as good a conductor, but it is a little lighter,
and it is a lot cheaper.”

“I don’t think they would have much trouble getting
their silver. I think it is quite possible that the planet
they come from should have a lot of native silver,”
replied Morey.

As they talked they had followed the huge conductors
back to their point of convergence. Suddenly they
rounded the corner of one of the huge main power units,
and saw before them, at the center of the square formed
by these machines, a low platform of the clear light-
metal. At the exact center of this raised platform,
which was twenty feet in diameter, there was a small
table, about seven feet on an edge, and raised about five
feet from the level of the platform on stout light-metal
legs. On the table there were two huge cubes of solid
silver, and into these great cubes ran all those conduc-
tors they had seen. In the space perhaps six inches left
between the great blocks of metal, there was a small
box constructed of a new material. It was the most
absolutely reflecting substance that any of the men had
ever imagined. Indeed, it was so perfect a reflector that
they were unable to see it, but could detect its presence
only by the mirror images, and the fact that it blotted
out the objects behind. Now they noticed that through
the huge blocks of metal there were two small holes, and
two thin wires of this same reflecting material led into
those holes, but carefully insulated from the metal itself
by a coating of the light-matter. The wires were led
directly up to the roof, and then hung on three-foot
hangers of the light-metal; they were led toward
the bow.

Could this be the source of the power for the whole
ship, w r ondered the puzzled scientists? It seemed impos-
sible, yet there were many other impossible things hap-
pening here, and that strangely reflecting matter was
one of the strangest.

There was a low railing about the cubes, and their
little center piece, apparently intended to keep men from
coming in contact with it, so they decided that it was
wisest to leave it alone.

They had scarcely looked at it carefully, had not even
found time to ask each other questions, when the lieu-
tenant called to them that he could hear sounds behind
him.

At once the other men ran rapidly toward the narrow
corridor that had given them entrance. The flaming
gas was still shooting through the hole in the wall of the'
ship, and the rush of air through the corridor made it
very difficult to hear any sounds there, and the same
rush of air made it exceedingly difficult to walk.

“Turn on more power if you can, Lieutenant, and see
if we can’t draw out the enemy,” suggested Arcot, while
his friends got in position around the tube exit, well
braced.

As the officer increased the power of his ray, the moan
of the air through the tube-like corridor increased sud-
denly to a terrific roar, while an additional roar came
into the ears of the men, as the powerful blast of air
struck a peculiarly shaped projection and set it vibrat-
ing. But no enemies came out.

“I don’t think anything less than a war tank could

stand that blast,” said Arcot, after the Lieutenant had
shut off the blast from his pistol, at Arcot’s signal. “It
is probable that we will be attacked if we stay much
longer, though. I think that I will ask the Lieutenant
to stay here while we go out and get the ship ready to
leave. This time you are somewhat in the condition of
Hercules after Atlas left him holding the skies on his
shoulders. You can’t let go of that ray pistol for long,
or we will have a first rate explosion,” grinned Arcot.
“We are going to go back first, if you men wouldn’t let
us come in first. We refuse to relieve you, and this
time, though your orders conflict, you can use your
judgment only one way! We will signal you by firing
a revolver, and then you can come back to the corridor,
snap off your ray, and run into the ship which will be
waiting.

“We have one duty to perform first; we will carry this
man back to the ship. He was a brave man, and he cer-
tainly deserves burial in the soil of his own world.”

“I think I will look up his family, too, Morey, and
your father’s company will have to increase my salary
a little.”

S LOWLY the men forced their way back toward the
ship, fighting their way against the roaring column
of air, their burden hindering them somewhat; but at
last they reached the open tunnel. Even here the air
was in violent motion.

“We had better get out of here,” said Arcot, feeling
the draft of air coming up the tube from the open end.
“I am sure we are due for an explosion.”

They got into the car as quickly as possible, and ar-
ranged to reverse it. Then Wade fired the signal shot.
A moment later they saw the Lieutenant fighting his
way back against the pressure of the air, which had
continued for a while under its own momentum of
motion.

But, by the time he was in the car, there was an omi-
nous calm. The car was already backing swiftly down
the corridor, and had gotten nearly free, when suddenly
there was a dull sound ahead of them, and the car was
caught on a wave of pressure, and they were hurled
backwards with a terrific acceleration. They had been
headed straight out. The pressure seemed uniform,
and luck was with them, so they reached the open air,
shooting backwards at a speed of several hundred miles
an hour, the great tunnel, with its strong walls, and
flared opening, acting like some gigantic blunderbus,
with the car as its bullet. Arcot did not try to slow
down the little ship, but drove his foot down heavily on
the vertical accelerator, and the ship rocketed up with
terrific speed, and the acceleration seemed to pin the
men down to their seats with tripled weight. They had
climbed nearly a mile before the explosion came. A
terrific concussion it was, a dull thud of exploding gas,
and the little ship rocked and heaved in the vortex of
rushing gas, for they were scarce a full length away
from the great wreck, a mile long it was, and would
easily have reached up to them. The entire ship though,
now, as they looked at it, seemed to soundlessly disinte-
grate, and they realized the reason. They were rushing
away from it faster than the sound it made, and they
could not hear the explosion. The great ship seemed to
leap into a hundred great parts. It split throughout its
length, falling in huge broken masses of metal all about
it. One huge fragment was thrown high into the air
to fall on the ground beside it, and drive itself deep into
the soil.

But the explosion was over in an instant, and there
came a momentary lull. Suddenly, from the wrecked
engine room, there shot out a beam of intense white
fight that reached down and struck the soil beside the

508

AMAZING STORIES QUARTERLY

ship, and a part of the ship itself. In an instant the
soil, and that bit of the ship were glowing incandescent,
and slumped molten, volatilizing, beside it. The beam
suddenly began to shift, faster and faster, as the
support that was holding it was melting, it twisted
about, reaching forward, cutting the mighty ship in two
like a hot knife melting its way through a piece of
butter. It had but half completed this maneuver, when
there came a sudden blast of light from the point where
the beam originated, and the entire region became a
lake of molten metal, while the Terrestrians flew
blindly, their eyes temporarily dazzled by the light. I
call it a blast of light, for so intense was it that no
other word adequately describes it — a light that melted
all metal about it instantaneously.

“I think it is time we left that machine!” said Wade,
looking down in amazement and horror at the pool of
glowing metal that marked the last of the great ship.

“That last flash must have been the power plant going.
Don’t you suppose so, fellows?” asked Arcot. “It cer-
tainly had plenty of power!”

They looked at the mass of blazing metal in awe, as
Arcot brought their flying ship to a halt, and slowly
lowered it. As they descended, the roar of the explosion
reached them. Though a full mile and a half away, the
heat that beat up at them from the great mass of metal
was so intense as to make the ship most uncomfortably
warm.

“I am wondering whether any of the other ships will
do the same. We ought to warn all the others before
they do,” suggested Morey.

“I believe they will come — remember what a noise
that explosion made when the sound did catch us, and
then, since we were going away from it very rapidly,
the Doppler effect lowered the frequency of the sound
so much that what we felt as mechanical vibrations,
were actually sound waves. What we heard as a low,
powerful rumbling, were actually high notes of the
explosion, so you can appreciate the actual power of that
sound. It will serve as a very effective warning to the
other men,” replied Arcot. Indeed, by the time they
had returned to the central headquarters machine, and
brought to the staff the unpleasant news of their encoun-
ter in the ship, many other machines were coming in
from the other ships. Half an hour later the three men
were again flying swiftly, now toward New York,
where Arcot’s laboratory was located.

“Well, fellows, what are your opinions on it? Wade,
you are our chemist, tell us what you think of the explo-
sion of the ship, and of the strange color of our mole-
cular ray in their air,” suggested Arcot.

“I have been trying to figure it out. I can’t quite
believe my results, yet I can’t see any other solution.
That reddish glow looked like hydrogen ions in the air.
The atmosphere was certainly combustible when it met
ours, which makes it impossible to believe that their air
contained any noticeable amount of oxygen, for any-
thing above 20 per cent, oxygen and the rest hydrogen
would be violently explosive, and apparently the gas had
to mix liberally with our air to reach that proportion.
That it didn’t explode when ionized, showed the absence
of hydro-oxygen mixture. All the observed facts except
one seem to point to an atmosphere composed largely of
hydrogen. There were people living in it. That is the
only thing that puzzles me. I can understand how the
Venerians might stand a different climate, but I can’t
see how people can live in an atmosphere like that.”
Wade was greatly puzzled.

“I came to the same conclusions myself,” replied
Arcot, himself rather in doubt, “but I think that people
might live in an atmosphere of hydrogen. It is all a
question of organic chemistry. Remember that our

bodies are just chemical furnaces. We take in fuel, and
oxidize it, using the heat as our source of power. Those
men live in an atmosphere of hydrogen. They eat
oxidizing fuels, and breathe a reducing atmosphere;
they have the two fuel components together again, but
in a way different from our method. It is just as effec-
tive.

“I am sure that is the secret of the whole thing.”

“Say, Arcot — I believe you’re right!” said Wade with
an expression of surprised belief on his face. He could
see the possibility of the thing. “But I want to ask you
a question. Where under the sun did these people come
from?”

“I have been thinking that over myself,” replied
Arcot slowly, “and I am beginning to wonder myself,
and the more I wonder, the less I believe they did come
from under our sun. Let us eliminate all the planets —
we can do that at one fell swoop. It is perfectly obvious
that those ships are by no means the first crude attempts
of that race to fly through space. If they have had those
ships, we should certainly have heard from them by
now. It is known that they can travel in space as rapidly
as we can in the upper atmosphere, and they would cer-
tainly have been here long before, if they had been
living anywhere near here.

“Even Neptune is too near for the distance to bother
them any with ships like those. They came from fur-
ther than that! That takes us out into interstellar
space. You will probably want to ram a lot of my own
arguments down my throat — there is no star near
enough for the journey to be made in anything less than
a couple of generations, and they would freeze in the
interstellar cold doing it. Perfectly correct, there is
no known star near enough to make it possible. But
how about unknowns?”

“What did they do with the star? Hide it behind a
sun-shade?” asked Morey, rather sarcastically.

“No, brainless, you ought to know better. You well
know a star can’t radiate forever. Stars are subject to
decay as well as anything else!”

“Yes — also the planets that circle them are apt to be-
come a wee bit cool, you know!”

“Yes,” admitted Arcot, “I agree with you — for all we
could do, but give those men credit for a little higher
order of intelligence. We saw machines there that cer-
tainly were beyond us ! They are undoubtedly heating
their planets with the same source of energy with which
they are running their ships. I believe I have confirma-
tion of that fact in two things. They are absolutely
colorless; they don’t even have an opaque white skin.
Any living creature exposed to the rays of a sun, which
is sure to emit some chemical rays, is subject to colora-
tion as a protection against those rays. The whites, who
have always lived where the sun is weakest, have devel-
oped a skin only slightly opaque. The Chinese, who live
In more tropical countries, where less clothes and more
sun is the motto, have slightly darker skins, while in
the extreme tropics Nature has found it necessary to
use a regular blanket of color to stop the rays. Now
exterpolating the other way, were there no such rays,
the people would become a pigmentless race. Since most
proteins are rather translucent, at least when wet, they
would appear much as those men did. We got little
opportunity to observe them, but I think you all noticed
that. Remember that there are very few colored proteins.
Hemo-globin, such as is in our blood, and hemo-cyanin,
such as in the blue blood of the Venerians, are practi-
cally unique in that respect. For hydrogen absorption,
I imagine the blood of these creatures contains a fair
proportion of some highly unsaturated compound, which
readily takes on the element, and gives it up later. But
we can discuss more in the lab.”

THE BLACK STAR PASSES

509

B EFORE leaving the field, Arcot had convinced the
officer in charge that it would be wise to destroy
these ships at once, lest one of them managed to escape,
and do tremendous damage. The fact that none of them
had any rays in operation was easily explained; they
would have been destroyed by the patrol, if they had
made any show of weapons. But now they might be
getting some ready. The scientists were all through
with their investigations. So the ships had been rayed
apart, and when Arcot had left, their burning atmos-
phere had been evolving mighty tongues of flame shoot-
ing a mile into the air. The light gas of the atmosphere
tended to rise in a great sphere, a ball that quickly
burned itself out in the air. It had not taken long for
the last of the machines to disintegrate under the rays.
There would be no more trouble from them at any rate !
Now Morey asked Arcot if he thought that they had
learned from the ships all they could ; would it not have
been wiser to save them, and investigate later, taking a
chance on stopping any ships, keeping a patrol of air
guards there.

“I thought quite a bit before I suggested that, and I
conferred for a few moments with Dr. Forsyth, the fa-
mous biologist and bacteriologist. He said that they
had by no means learned as much as they wished, but
they had been forced to leave in any event. Remember
that pure hydrogen, the atmosphere we were actually
living in, while on the ship, is quite as inert as pure oxy-
gen, but they get very rough when mixed together. The
longer those ships stood the more dangerously explosive
they got. If we hadn’t destroyed them, they would have
wrecked themselves, and it was so exceedingly unsafe
even after the short two hours, that we could not stay
there. I think it was wisest. Also, Dr. Forsyth pointed
out the danger of disease. We might be susceptible to
their germs. I don’t believe we would be, for our chemi-
cal constitution is so vastly different. For instance, the
Venerians and Terrestrians can visit each other with
perfect freedom. The Venerians have diseases, and so
do we, but there are things in the blood of Venerians
that are absolutely deadly to any Terrestrian organism.
Venerians have been injected with every known Terres-
trian disease, and not even been bothered by the germs.
They have no immunity, but their chemical constitution
is so different that they don’t need it. Sulphuric acid
has developed no immunity to the bacteria of decay, but
it is so corrosive, it doesn’t need any. The Venerians,
with their copper compound blood, are fatal to any Ter-
restrian organism, while Terrestrians are deadly to
any Venerian organism. Similarly, Dr. Forsyth thinks,
we would be immune to all diseases brought by the In-
vaders. However, it is safest to remove them first, and
decide later.”

The three men went rapidly back to New York, flying
high above the surface of the Earth, nearly sixty miles
above the ground, where there would be no interfering
traffic, till at last they were over New York, and drop-
ping swiftly in a vertical traffic lane.

They reached the road of the Arcot Laboratories with-
out any difficulty, and settled the machine lightly in the
landing cradle. Areot’s father, and Morey’s, were there,
anxiously awaiting their return. The elder Arcot had
for many years held the reputation of being the nation’s
greatest physicist, but recently he had lost it — to his
son. Mr. Morey senior was the president and chief
stockholder in the Transcontinental Air Lines. The
Arcots, father and son, had turned all their inventions
over to their close friends, the Moreys. For many years
the success of the great air lines had been dependent
really on the inventions of the Arcots; these new dis-
coveries allowed them to be always one step ahead of
competition, and as they also made the huge transport

machines for other companies, they drew tremendous
profit from these mechanisms. The mutual interest,
which began as a pure business relation, had long become
a close personal friendship.

Now, as the shining ship drew near, and settled swift-
ly to the landing cradle, the old friends ran forward
together. They had learned of the attack through their
sons, and had rushed to the laboratory, for the news was
not to be made public immediately.

As Arcot stepped out of his car, he called over to his
father, telling them about his find, the light-matter
plate.

“I think I’ll need a handling machine to move it. I
want to get one, but I’ll be right back.” He ran to the
elevator shaft and dropped quickly to the heavy machin-
ery lab. on the bottom floor, where he got a small han-
dling machine, a tractor-like machine with a small der-
rick, designed to get its power from the electric mains.
With a length of cable coiled on the back, of the little
machine, Arcot ran it on to the elevator, cast loose the
power cable, and ran the car swiftly up to the roof again.
Here he connected to the power line by means of the
long cable, for there were connections here, designed for
the handling machines. Then he ran the little machine
over to the car, where Wade and Morey were struggling
to get the plate into a more advantageous position. They
looked up as they heard the rumble and hum of the
powerful little machine. From the crane dangled a
strong electro-magnet.

“What’s that for? You don’t expect this to be mag-
netic do you?” asked Wade, pointing to the magnet.

“Wait and see!” laughed Arcot, maneuvering the
machine into position. Soon the crane reached into the
car, and lowered the magnet on the plate of crystal.
Then slowly he turned the power into the magnet. In a
moment the plate had set itself firmly on the magnet.
Then slowly Arcot turned the power into the lifting
motor. The hum rose swiftly till the full load began to
come on the cables. Then suddenly the motor was whin-
ing with full power, the cables vibrating under the ten-
sion. The machine pulled steadily, then, to Arcot’s sur-
prise, the rear end of the machine rose slowly from the
ground, tipping forward as the load came on the
front end.

“Well — it was magnetic, but how did you know?”
asked the surprised Wade. Since the ship had been
made of the gleaming, only slightly magnetic Venerian
metal, coronium, the plate was obviously the thing that
was holding the magnet back.

“Never mind — I’ll tell you later — jump on here and
see if our combined weight won’t hold the end down. I
think we ought to be able to manage it,” replied Arcot,
smiling at the puzzled expression on his friend’s face.

As the three big men sat on the end of the little ma-
chine, the leverage was great enough to pull the plate
from the floor; then they quickly backed the machine
out, and ran it over to the elevator, where they lowered
the heavy plate. Disconnecting the cable, the five men
entered the car, and rode down to Arcot’s private labora-
tory. Here the handling machine was again brought
into play, and the plate was unloaded from the car.

“I’m with Wade in wondering how you knew the
plate was magnetic, son. I can accept your explanation
that the stuff is a species of matter made of light, but I
know you too well to think it was just a lucky guess.
How did you know?” asked the elder Arcot.

“I really had to rather guess at this, Dad, though there
was some reason in my guess. You ought to be able to
think of it! How about you, Morey?” asked Arcot
smiling at his friend.

“I have kept discreetly quiet, feeling that in silence I
could not betray my ignorance, but if you ask me, I can

510

AMAZING STORIES QUARTERLY

only guess. I do recall that light is affected by a power-
ful magnet, and I can imagine that that was the basis
of your guess,” replied Morey. “It had been known for
many years, as far back as Clerk Maxwell, that polar-
ized light was rotated by a powerful magnet.”

“It was — and now we may as well go over the whole
story, and tell Dad and your father the whole case, and
perhaps in telling it we can straighten out our own ideas
a bit.”

F OR the next hour the three men talked by# turns, each
telling his story, and trying to give some explana-
tion of it, but in the end they all agreed on one thing:
if they were to fight the enemy, they must have ships
that could travel swiftly in space.

“But I wonder if Arcot will now kindly explain his
famous invisible light, or the lost star?” said Morey
rather sarcastically. He was a bit nettled by his own
slowness in remembering the fact that a star could
go black.

“I cannot see what connection this has with their sud-
den attack. If they were there, they must have developed
when that star was bright, and as a star requires sev-
eral million years to cool down, I can’t see how they
could suddenly appear in space.”

Arcot paused before answering. He reached into the
drawer of his desk beside him, and pulled out an old
briar-root pipe, and carefully filled it, with a thoughtful
frown on his face. Contentedly he lit it, then leaning
back, he puffed out a thin column of grey smoke that
rose straight into the air.

“Those men must have developed on their planets
before the sun cooled.” He puffed slowly. “They are,
then, a race millions, even billions, of years old. I had
a hunch that that was so. I can not give any scientific
reason for this feeling; it was merely an impression I
had. It may have been induced by my beliefs, but I
had a feeling that those men were old, older than our
very planet ! This little globe is not much over one bil-
lion years old. I felt that that race was so very ancient
they might well have counted the revolutions of this
galactic system as, once every twenty or thirty million
years, it swung about its center.

“When I looked at those great machines, and those
little men as they handled their ray projectors, they
seemed out of place. That is the only way I can express
that feeling.” He paused again, and the slow 7 smoke
drifted up.

“They seemed to me to be # a group of ancient Greeks
in a great modern interplanetary liner. Out of place.
They were intelligent, learned in their w r ay, but they did
not seem scientists, and it did not seem that they should
be handling death ray projectors. It seemed to me that
they were a peaceful race. I was surprised when I
heard that they had resisted the attempt to arbitrate,
until I heard the details of it. I think this war might
have been avoided at that, but for one little slip ! The
operator of the Terrestrial peace-ship attempted to sig-
nal the Invaders to land, and he used .a searchlight.
They were nervous; they were investigating a strange
system and they saw a beam of some vibration, they
could not tell what, coming at them. In self-defense
they struck back. They did not know it was light, and
they did not dare to wait and find out. It might not
have been ; I can understand their fears.

“It must have been millions of years ago that life
developed on those planets, the planets of a warm sun,
for then it was younger. It was probably .rather dim
even then. Remember that our own sun is well above
the average in brilliance and heat radiation.

“In those long-gone ages I can imagine a race much
like ours developing, different chemically, in their atmos-

phere of hydrogen, but the chemical body is not what
makes a race, it is the thought process. They must have
developed, and then, as their science grew, their sun
waned. Dimmer and dimmer it must have grown, till
at last their planets would not maintain their life
naturally. Then they had to heat them artificially.
There is no doubt as to their source of pow 7 er; they
had to use the energy of matter; there is no other
source great enough to do their work. The atomic
energy of radium would not begin to do the task. It is
conceivable that their science had developed this long
before their necessity came.

“With this, must also have come the process of trans-
mutation, and the process they use in driving their Inter-
stellar cruisers. I am sure those machines are driven
by material energy.

“But at last their star w 7 as black, a closed star, and
their cold, black planets must circle a hot, black sun
forever ! They knew that they were trapped for
eternity if they did not escape to some other stellar
system. They could not travel as fast as light, and they
could escape only if they found some other near-by solar
system. Their star was dead — black. Let us call that
star Nigra — The* Black One. They were invisible as
their system swept near ours in space. But all these
changes, leading to this last opportunity, must have
taken many, many millenniums. We can imagine the
race living in their artificially heated worlds, with arti-
ficial foods probably, and the millions of stars above
them — nothing to do, and no reason to work. They
would deteriorate rapidly. I am sure that this was the
fate of the race, for these men did not seem to me like
men who would develop the giant ships they rode in.
It is only a feeling, I would not give that as an official
opinion, I merely tell you of my impressions. I am
certain, however, that the race would deteriorate under
the conditions I named.

“But now they have met with a rare coincidence.
They have actually come near another sun. They
naturally have every intention of taking advantage of
it, and since our sun has been plainly visible to them
for many, many years, they were no doubt able to pre-
pare. I believe that this expedition was just intended
as exploration, and if they can send such huge ma-
chines and so many of them, for mere exploration, I
am sure they must have quite a fleet to fight with.

“Let us consider the weapons they will have.

“We know they have that death ray, but that was not
quite as deadly as we might have feared, solely because
our ships could outmaneuver them. Next time they will
come with a huge fleet of little ships, and they will be a
real enemy. We must build a larger fleet, and w 7 e can
see if the other men have discovered the secret of the
projector. Unfortunately, we could not spend more time
on those ships, because they were huge gas bombs, and
became more explosive each second. tVe had to leave,
and we were sure to find little in so short a time. We
must investigate what we have learned.”

“Well, I had a very unique experience with the death
ray,” said Arcot, as he looked at his right arm. “Cer-
tainly few people that felt it lived to tell about it. I
have been thinking the mechanism over, and trying to
discover possibilities. I think I know what the system
is.

“You are all familiar with the catalytic effects of
light. Hydrogen and chlorine will stand very peace-
fully in the same jar for a long time, and yet, let a
strong light fall on them, and a catalytic effect takes
place. They combine with terrific violence. This is
the catalytic effect of a vibration, a wave motion.

“Then we have another form of catalysis. We have
such things as benzaldehyde, which will oxidize if

THE BLACK STAR PASSES

511

standing in the air, and crystallize out as benzoic acid,
yet if just a trace of certain other phenyl compounds
are present, the reaction is quite completely stopped.
This is an example of negative catalysis. It certainly
takes no genius to think of combining the two ideas,
though it is, of course, considerably less easy to do
than to think of. I believe that is the principle of the
Nigrian death ray; they simply stop the chemical reac-
tions of a living body, and these are so delicately bal-
anced that the least resistance will upset them. Just
see how closely the temperature ranges must be main-
tained. The human body must maintain the tempera-
ture of the brain, and the main nervous system within
four or five degrees, or death ensues.

"The Nigrians merely project a ray at their ene-
mies, and the body changes are halted, which makes
death instantaneous and painless.”

A RCOT halted, and sat puffing furiously a moment;

, in his discourse, the pipe had died down to an
ember, and now he was trying vigorous puffing to re-
store it. At last he had it going and continued.

“What other weapons they may have we cannot say.
The secret of invisibility must be very old to them.
But we will guard against the possibility by equipping
our ships against it. The only reason the patrol ships
aren t equipped already is that the invisibility is use-
less with modern criminals; they all know the secret
and how to fight it.”

Arcot referred to the invisibility apparatus that had
been invented by Wade — a system of rendering any
material perfectly transparent by impressing on it tre-
mendously high frequency electric impulses. It was
discovered as early as 1925 that the plate of a radio
tube became invisible when working on very short
waves. This idea, amplified to the dimensions of the
patrol ships, would make them, and everything in them,
perfectly transparent. The invisible ship could, how-
ever, be located by using a short wave radio receiving
set. The directorial set gave an easy method of lo-
cating its position, and by projecting a short wave
beam in the same direction, the two wave forms —
that which was making the ship invisible, and that
which the attacker was using — fought each other, and,
if the attacker could apply more power than the invis-
ible one, the invisible ship was made visible. In any
case it was readily located, and an application of lumi-
nous paint to the invisible ship made it permanently
visible, for a perfectly transparent ship is not invisible
if it shines. The patrol carried invisibility detectors,
and luminous paint bombs, but not the invisibility
apparatus.”

Arcot was puffing steadily at his pipe now, appar-
ently waiting for questions, but each seemed so busy
with his own thoughts, stirred up by Arcot’s speech,
that they remained quiet for some time. Finally Morey
spoke up:

“Arcot, we certainly have to get out into space
somehow to fight them, but how are we going to do
it? I was wondering if we could use Wade’s system
of storing the atomic hydrogen in solution. That yields
about 100,000 calories for every two grams, and since
this is a method of storing heat energy, and your
mplecular motion director is a method of converting
heat into mechanical work with 100 per cent efficiency,
why not use that? All we need, really, is a method
of storing heat energy for use while we are in space.”
Arcot was silent a moment before answering.

"I thought of that, and I have been trying to think
of other and, if possible, better and cheaper and quicker
ways of getting the necessary power.

"Let us eliminate all the known sources one by one.

The usual ones, the ones men have been using for cen-
turies, go out at once. The atomic hydrogen reaction
stores more energy per gram than any other chemical
reaction known. But there are other ways of storing
it. Let us take into account all known ways. First
there is the storage battery, which is nothing but a
chemical reaction. Next is the electro-static con-
denser, but that does not store any great amount of
energy if a practical voltage is used, and there are
mechanical difficulties. Then comes the induction coil,
which stores electro-magnetic energy. That is far bet-
ter than the condenser, but it is a method of storing
energy in a rather kinetic form, you must maintain
the current flowing in it. There is one more form.
We must rule out plain heat storage; it is too ineffi-
cient. The only other method of storing energy is
the method used by the Kaxorians in driving their
huge planes. They used condensed light-energy. This
was efficient to the ultimate maximum, something no
other method can hope to attain. We know that mass
is a measure of the energy stored, and in their method
they took light, and condensed it, storing its energy by
binding one photon to the next through gravitational
attraction between individual photons. The ultimate
maximum is the amount of energy one gram repre-
sents, being fully capable of release, and in this case
they got the full four hundred and fifty thousand mil-
lion million million ergs per pound out of their fuel,
but they didn’t need more than a pound of fuel all told
in those planes. Yet they had huge reservoirs that were
needed to store it. The result was still ineffective for
our purpose ; we want something we can put in a small
space; we want to condense the light still further, but
that will be the ideal form of energy storage, for then
we will be able to release it directly as a heat ray, and
so use it with the utmost efficiency. I think we can
absorb the released energy in the usual cavity radiator,”
said Arcot meditatively.

“That’s true; I think that is best, but there is still
the difficulty that we can’t get the power storage appa-
ratus condensed enough. It was the greater flexibil-
ity of the small ship that permitted us to win so read-
ily, remember that. The big apparatus would make it
very much more cumbersome.

“Then too, there is a second consideration. All that
energy has to be gotten from sunlight, practically,
and you have to ‘charge the batteries,’ as with any
other kind of a storage device. It would require so
long to get the energy collectors built that we would not
be fully prepared when the Nigrians return for some
more playing. I wonder how long their star is going
to be near us?” said Morey junior.

“I thought of the difficulty of storage. I was wonder-
ing about the time limit also, and I believe we can
solve both, and, into the bargain, have a little laugh at
our enemies. What we want is to have that light stored
in a more condenser form, a form that is naturally
stable, and does not need to be held bound, but requires
urging to release. I was wondering — ” Arcot paused,
smiling questioningly at his audience.

“Oh — Ho — Ha — say that’s rare! Whoo — I have to
hand it to you — That takes all prizes — have the laugh
on our enemies is right!” Wade was laughing so hard
he could scarcely speak! In puzzled wonder Morey and
the two older men looked at him, and at Arcot who
who was grinning broadly.

“Well, it must be funny, but — Oh — I see — say that
is good! I see what he means, Dad!” exclaimed Morey
turning to his father.

“The light-matter windows we found in the enemy
machines contain enough bound light-energy to run all
the planes we could make in the next ten years! We
are going to have the enemy supply us with the power

512

AMAZING STORIES QUARTERLY

we can’t get in any other way ! I think you do take all
prizes for ingenuity, Arcot!”

Dr. Arcot senior smiled at first, then looked dubiously
at his son.

“I can see that there is plenty of energy stored there,
but, as you said, the energy needs considerable en-
couragement to break free. How do you expect to do
that, Son?”

“I have an idea. I don’t know how it will work, but
we can try.” Arcot puffed at his pipe, rather serious
now, as he thought of the problems ahead.

“But Arcot,” asked Wade curiously, “how do you
suppose they condense that light energy in the first
place, and, their sun being dead, whence all the light?
I suppose it is from the energy of matter, is it not?”

“I think they break up matter for its energy,
but of course I can’t say. However, I don’t know where
else they could get all that energy. As to the conden-
sation problem, I think I have a possible solution of
that too; also the same solution applies to the problem
of release. We haven’t the secret of releasing material
energy, but I think we will have before this war is
over, if we have anything at all! There is that pos-
sibility!” he smiled at them. It was quite possible
that man would have neither the secret of material
energy, nor the sun, nor life, but there was consider-
able hope just now. “In any case, we won’t need to
worry about that for a while.”

“How do you think they got their energy loose?
Do you think those big blocks of pure silver had any-
thing to do with it?” asked Wade.

“Why, yes, I do think they had something to do with
it. Those blocks of silver were probably designed to
carry away the power once it was released. The re-
lease was accomplished in some way mysterious to me.
They solved the greatest problem of the work. You
can’t light a fire on a barrel of gunpowder very safely.
They couldn’t use material apparatus to start their re-
lease of material energy, the material of the apparatus
might ‘catch fire’ too. They had to have the disinte-
grating matter held apart from all other matter. This
was quite impossible, if you were going to get the
energy away by any method, other than by the use of
fields of force. I don’t think that is the method. My
guess is that a terrific current of electricity would ac-
complish it if anything would.

“How then are we going to get the current to it?
The wires will be subject to the same currents. What-
ever they do to the matter under consideration, the
currents will do to the apparatus — except in one case.
If that apparatus is made of some other kind of matter,
then it won’t be affected. The solution is obvious.
Take some of the light-matter. What will destroy
light-matter, won’t destroy electricity-matter ; and
what will destroy electricity-matter, won’t disturb light-
matter.

“TAO you remember the platform of light-metal,
\-J clear as crystal? It must have been exceedingly
heavy, too ! That was no doubt an insulating platform.
What we started as our assumptions in the case of the
light-metal, we can now carry further. We said that
electricity-metals carried electricity, so light-metals
would carry, or conduct light. Now we know that there is
no substance which is transparent to light, that will carry
electricity by metallic conduction. I mean, of course,
there is no substance transparent to light, and at the same
time capable of carrying electricity by electronic trans-
mission. We have, of course, things like NaCl solutions
in ordinary H 2 0 which will carry electricity, but here
it is by ionic conduction. Even glass will carry electric-
ity very well when hot; when red hot, glass will carry
enough electricity to melt it very quickly. But here is

just an illustration that glass is not a solid, but a
viscous liquid, and it is again carried by ionic conduc-
tion. Iron, copper, silver, sodium, lead, ail metals carry
the current by means of electron drift through the
solid substance. In such cases we can see that no
transparent substance conducts electricity. Take sul-
phur, one of the best insulators in the world; it will
not conduct electricity, but a sulphur crystal is beauti-
fully transparent.

“Similarly the reverse is true. No substance capable
of carrying electricity by metallic conduction is trans-
parent. They are all opaque, if in any thickness. Of course
gold is transparent, but only in leaf when it is so thin
that it won’t conduct ! The peculiar condition we reach
in the case of the invisible ship is different. There the
effects are brought about by the high frequency im-
pressed. But you get my point.

“Do you remember those wires that we saw leading
to that little box of the reflecting material? So per-
fectly reflecting it was that we didn’t see it. We only
saw where it must be ; we saw the light it reflected. That
was no doubt light-matter, a light-matter, non-metal,
and as such, non-conductive to light. Like sulphur,
an electric non-metal, it reflected the base of which it
was formed. Sulphur reflects electricity and passes
light. This light-non-metal did the same sort of thing;
it reflected light, and passed electricity. It was a con-
ductor.

“Now we have the things we need, the matter to
disintegrate, and the matter to hold the disintegrating
material in. We have two different types of matter.
The rest was obvious, but decidedly not easy. They
have done it though, and after the war is over, there
will still be many machines floating around in space,
and I am sure we will be able to learn the secret of
material energy.”

“Well, Son, I hope you do. But I know that it is
time you got working on your problem, since I am
officially retired, I am going down stairs. You know
I am working in my laboratory with a young man
by the name of Norris, and I think we have a method
for increasing the range and power of your projector
for the molecular motion field. I will show you our math,
later, you know there has been little development work
done along that line since you did your hurried work
on Venus. You had only the simplest kind of calculating
machine, and I think we can do a bit better.”

“I don’t know! Remember that they have been try-
ing to develop that,” replied the elder Morey, “but they
did such a good job when they did do it, that no one
else has improved it since.” '

“Yes, Dad, what Morey here can do with a simple
calculating machine, is a lot more than most scientists
can do on a new Brandes-Monsun! I think you prob-
ably can improve on it, but you will find that he did a
good job!” said Arcot junior. Morey was permanently
attached to the three because of his keen mathematical
ability. He was able to develop the mathematical facts
along the lines Arcot suggested with amazing rapidity,
and great ingenuity. He was probably better qualified
to convert a mathematical expression into a physical
law than any other man in the world. Arcot could see
the basic laws, and sketch the physical background, but
Morey filled in the gaps with mathematical proof. Wade
found his field in chemistry, though his knowledge of
physics was decidedly above par.

“In any case, I think we had best get started on our
work! It means a lot to save even twenty minutes
today!”

The party broke up — the three younger men staying
in their own laboratory, while Dr. Arcot senior went
down to his laboratories.

“Oh, Mr. Morey,” called o it Arcot, “before you leave.

THE BLACK STAR PASSES

513

I want to ask you if you can spare Fuller again, since
you have finished the work on the molecular motion
fleet, I am sure he will be able to help a lot here, and
it is really his right to design the first of these new
space ships!”

Fuller had been with these men in each of their ad-
ventures since the original development of the molec-
ular motion ship. He had designed the first of them,
the first little ship that had shown the power of the
molecules in motion, and he had designed the first Air

Liner working on a new principle. He had drawn up

the plans for the “Solarite,” the first interplanetary
ship of the system. Certainly he had every right to
be “in on” this new advance. Mr. Morey, for whom
Fuller had been designing the fleet of molecular mo-
tion ships, gladly gave his approval. The foremost de-
signer of the country, he should certainly be working
with these men, the foremost scientists of the country,
if not of the system.

After they had left, Arcot suggested that Wade and
Morey start attacking that plate of crystal, in an at-
tempt to tear off a small piece, on which they might
work. In the meantime he went into the televisophone
room and started to put through a call. He wished to
get in touch with the Tychos observatory, the great
observatory that had so recently been established on
the frigid surface of the little dead world, the Moon.
The huge mirror, ten feet in diameter, allowed of im-
mense magnification here, and stellar observations
were greatly facilitated, for no one bothered them, and
the “seeing” was always good.

However, the great distance was rather a handicap
to the ordinary televisophone stations, and all calls put

through to it had to be made tarough the powerful
sending station in St. Louis, where all interplanetary
messages were sent and received, while that side of the
Earth was facing the station, and from Constantinople,
when that city faced the destination. These stations
could bridge the distance readily and clearly.

For several mintutes Arcot waited while the con-
nections were being established for the Moon; then
for many more minutes he talked earnestly with the
observer in this distant stations, and at last satisfied, he

hung up.

For some time he had outlined his ideas concerning
the Black Star to the men in charge ; then he had asked
that they investigate the possibilities, and see if they
could find any noticeable effects on the planets.

Finally he returned to where his friends had been
working on the crystal plate. Wade had a most de-
cidedly exasperated expression on his face, and Morey
was grinning broadly.

“Hello Arcot — you missed all the fun! You should
have seen Wade here working on that plate!” The
plate had, in his absence, been twisted and bent, show-
ing that it had undergone some terrific stresses. Having
some idea of the strength of the material, Arcot could
appreciate what forces must necessarily have been
used. Now Wade began to make certain remarks about
the properties of the plate in language that was not
exactly scientific. It was more the language of a me-
chanic who has just released the power of the molec-
ular director ray of his machine, only to discover it does
not work, and that his last two hours’ labor proved
fruitless.

“Why, Wade, you don’t seem to like that stuff. Per-
haps the difficulty lies in your treatment,
rather than in the material itself. I
think I can show you how to do it.
What have you tried?”

“Everything ! I took a coronium hack
saw that will eat through molybdenum
steel like so much cheese, and it just
wore its teeth off. I tried some of those
diamond rotary saws you have, attached
to a small electric motor, and it wore
out the diamonds. That got my goat,
so I tried using a little force. I put
it in the tension testing machine, and
clamped it — the clamp was good for
10,000,000 pounds — but it began to bend,
so I had to quit. Then Morey held it
with a molecular ray, and I tried twist-
ing it. You know it gave me real pleas-
ure to see that thing yield under the
pressure. But it is not brittle; it merely
bends.

“And I can’t cut it, or even get some
shavings off the darned thing. You
said you wanted to make a Jolly balance
determination of the specific gravity, but
that stuff is so dense you would need
only a tiny scrap, and I can’t break
that loose!” Wade looked at the thing
in greatest disgust. He would have
liked to kick it, but he knew it was
heavy, and very hard, so he did not.

Arcot smiled at him; he could under-
stand his feeling, for the stuff certainly
was stubborn with any tools they had in
their command. “I’m sorry I didn’t warn
you fellows about that, but I was so
anxious to get that call through that I
forgot to tell you how I expected to
make it more workable. Now, if Wade
will get another one of those diamond-

II e wished to get in touch with the Tychos observatory, . . . that
had so recently been established on the frigid surface of the little
dead world, the Moon,

514

AMAZING STORIES QUARTERLY

tooth rotary saws, I’ll get something that may help.
Please put the rotary saw on the air motor. Use the
one made of coronium.”

W ADE looked after the rapidly disappearing Arcot
in rather considerable surprise, then, scratching
his head, he turned and started to do as Arcot had
asked.

Arcot returned in about five minutes with a small
handling machine, and a huge magnet. It must have
weighed nearly half a ton and looked quite capable of
changing the north magnetic pole of the earth. This
he quickly connected to the heavy duty power lines of
the lab. Now, running the handling machine into po-
sition, he quickly hoisted the bent and twisted plate
to the poles of the big magnet, with the aid of the
derrick.

Then he backed the handling machine out of the
way, and finally returned on foot.

“Now, we’ll see whether or not we are going to win
this war!” said Arcot, smiling a bit. He stepped over
to the big magnet and switched on the current. At once
a terrific magnetic flux was set up through the light-
metal. Then he took the little compressed air saw, and
applied it to the crystal plate. The smooth hiss of the
air deepened to a whine as the load came on it, then
the saw was scraping on the hard plate.

To Wade’s surprise and joy he saw the little diamond-
edged saw bite its way slowly but steadily into the
heavy plate. In a moment it had cut off a little corner
of the light-matter, and this fell with a heavy thud to
the magnet pole, drawn down both by the attraction of
the magnet and"by gravity.

Arcot at once shut off the magnet, and stepped back.
Then he picked up a pair of pliers, and gripped the
little chunk of light-metal.

“Whew — this may be light-metal, but it certainly
is not light metal! I think this little scrap weighs
nearly ten pounds ! We will have to reduce it consider-
ably before we can use it. I think we can handle it
now though!”

By using the magnet and several large diamond face-
plates, gotten from the great diamond mines on the
moon, they were able to work the tough material down
to a thin sheet ; then, with a heavy press, they cut some
very small fragments, and with these, determined the
specific gravity.

As Wade watched the little plates of light-metal
spread out under the hard diamond face-plates, and
flattening nicely he looked at them in wonder. He
seemed surprised that anything could be done with
the material.

“Arcot,” he began at last, “just how does that magnet
make that stuff tractable? I can see how it might
attract it, but I am not physicist enough to see how it
can soften it. It may release some of the binding grav-
itation, but I know that magnetic and gravitational
fields, while Einstein has shown that they are similar,
are not identical, and they aren’t mutually influential.
Now I don’t see how this affects the stuff.”

“I wasn’t sure it would, but it was somewhat of a
hunch. The reason it will affect it, is, that the light-mat-
ter in every photon is affected by the magnetism, and
every photon is given a new motion. That stuff can
be made to go with the speed of light, you know. It is
the only solid that could be so affected. This stuff would
be able, with the - aid of a molecular motion beam,
which will make all the photons move in parallel paths,
to move at the full speed of each photon, 186,000 miles
a second. The tremendous speed of these individual
photons is what makes the material so hard. Their
kinetic impulse is rather considerable! It is the kinetic
blow that the molecules of a metal give that keeps other

metals from penetrating it. This simply gave such ter-
rific impulses that even diamonds wouldn’t cut it. Now
you know that an iron saw will cut platinum very
readily, yet if they are both heated to a temperature
of say, 1600 degrees, the iron is a liquid, and the
platinum very soft, but now it cuts through the iron
readily! The heat softens them.

“Heat will probably have no effect at all on this,
but the effect of the magnet on the individual photons
corresponds to the effect of the heat on the individual
atoms and molecules. The mass is softened, and we can
work it. I think that is the explanation ; that, at least,
is the reason for my original belief that I could soften
the stuff electro-magnetically.

“But Wade, I wish you would see if you can get the
density of this stuff. You are more used to those de-
terminations and that type of manipulation than we are.
When you get through, we may be able to show you
some results also!”

Wade picked up a tiny chip of the light-metal, and
started off toward his own laboratory. Here he set up
his Jolly balance, and set to work on the tiny fragment.
His results amazed him. The readings on the delicate
spring when in water, and when out, were so vastly
different, it seemed incredible that a substance could
be so dense. At last he returned to the main lab,
where Arcot and Morey were working rapidly at a
large, and complicated electro-static apparatus.

“What did you find?” called out Arcot, as he saw
Wade enter the room. “Tell us your results, and in the
meantime lend a hand here, will you? I have a labora-
tory scale apparatus of the type the Kaxorians used in
the storage of light. It has been known to them, ever
since they began the work on it, that their machines
would release the energy with more than normal vio-
lence, if certain changes were made in it. That is,
the light condenser, the piece of apparatus that stored
the photons so close to each other, would also serve
to urge them apart. I have made the necessary changes in
the apparatus, and I am now trying to set it up to work
on solid light-matter. The machine was developed for
gaseous light-matter, and it is a little hard to change it
over. I think we will have it in a minute. Wade, will
you connect that to the high frequency oscillator there
—no — through the counterbalanced condenser there.
We may have to change the oscillatory frequency quite
a bit, but I think we can do it. What results did you
get?”

“I don’t know whether to trust the results or not,”
was the answer. “I think we had best use the regular
volume and weight method rather than the Jolly bal-
ance. Of course the stuff must be heavy — but I still
think — well, anyway, I got a density of about 103.5 !”

“Whewww — 103.5! Lord! That is almost five times
as heavy as the heaviest metal hitherto known, osmium
is about 22, isn’t it? That makes osmium about ten
times as heavy as aluminum, and over twenty-five
times as heavy as sodium metal. Certainly there is
no good reason why we shouldn’t have a substance
four times as heavy as it! A hundred and twenty or
thirty times as heavy as postassium and sodium!

“There was about half a cubic foot of the material,
too; that would mean about 4000 pounds for the whole
mass, or two tons. There is good reason why we
couldn’t lift the plate !” The men had all stopped their
work on the apparatus to discuss the amazing results
of the density test, but now they fell to again, rapidly
assembling the apparatus, for each was a trained ex-
perimenter, and though Wade usually devoted his time
to chemistry, since in this group he shone better in
that field, nevertheless, he was a brilliant physicist,
and he would easily have been able to hold his own in
most scientific gatherings.

THE BLACK STAR PASSES

515

“I thinK we will have enough urge t,o disintegrate
right here, but I want to make sure, and so, before
we set up the case over it, I think. we rniay as well put
that big magnet in place, and have it there to help in
the work of disintegration, if need be,” suggested
Arcot, and so they placed the heavy mass as quickly
as possible, the little handling imachine swinging it
into place for them.

A I last the complete apparatus was set up, and the
tiny bit of light-matte r they were to work on was
set up on the table of a powerful Atchinson projector
microscope, the field -of view being in the exact center
o: the field of both the magnet and the coil.

“Well, we are. ready,” said Arcot, as he placed the
projector screen in position, and dimmed the lights
in the room;. A touch of the switch, and the projection
screen was. illuminated with the enlarged image of
the tiny sci’ap of light-metal. “Now let’s see what hap-
pens. T/nere is the obvious possibility that instead of
releasing the energy gradually as I expect, it will do
it all at once, and we will have a beautiful little ex-
plosion!. I should say it would be intense enough to
wreck - the three top floors of the building. That
probalbly weighs three milligrams.

“Before starting this experiment, I called up
Dr. planning, of Chicago, and told him what I was
doinig. He knows the line of research, so if anything
happens to us, the work will not be greatly delayed.
Herts goes!”

Alrcot placed his hand on the switch, and smiling at
his /friends, closed it. This put the powerful Arcot
oscil lator tubes into action, and the power was ready for
app/iication.

iSlowly he closed the rheostat and put the power into
the* coil. The little plate of metal on the slide seemed
to tthrob a bit, and its outline grew hazy, but at last
Apcot had full power on and the release was so slow
as i to be imperceptible. “Guess we need the magnet
after all; I’ll put it on this time,” Arcot said.

He opened the coil circuit and closed the magnet
circluit at half voltage, then again he increased the
current through the rheostat. This time the plate
throbbed quite violently, then suddenly it seemed like
a bit of fiodine. The dense vapors suddenly began pour-
ing from - it, and instantly those vapors became a
blindingly, brilliant flood of light. Arcot had snapped
open the Switch the moment he saw this display start,
and it haid had little time to act, for the instant the
circuit was opened it was forced to subside. But even
in this ijnterval of time, the light aluminum screen had
suddenly become limp and slumped down, molten! The
room was unbearably hot and the men were nearly
blinded; by the intensity of the light.

“It works!” It works! That sure was hot too —
it is roasting in here— open the window, will you
Arcot! - ” yelled Wade. That display meant that Earth
and Veihus would have space ships with which to fight
space ships! There was reason for their joy!

Though tijiey had made a great deal of progress al-
ready, there ‘was still a great deal of development work
to be done. Tihey must attain an accurate system of
control for the release of the energy, and they must-
have it under accurate and instantaneous control, a
control they could trust to take care of the terrific
energy at their disposal, for if it were to be used in a
ship it must be practicality automatic.

Fuller arrived later thafv afternoon and found the
three friends already at /work in developing a more
compact and scientific ajpparatus than the stray bits
of apparatus that had gone into making that first re-
lease mechanism.

“And so you can see,” said Arcot, as he finished his

explanation of progress so far, “we still have plenty
of work for you to do. Fuller. I am now trying to
find some data for you to work on, but I can tell you
this: we will need a ship that has plenty of strength
and plenty of speed. There will be the usual power
plant, of course; the generators, the power-tube board,
and the electro-magnetic relay controls for the regular
molecular motion controls. Then, in addition, we must
have the regular controls for the ray projector, and
that too must wait a while, for Dad is working on a
projector which has a range nearly twice as great as
what we have developed heretofore. The main difficulty
has been that the ray wouldn’t stay a ray, but spread
out. He has gotten his director field so intense that
the ray is nearly perfectly a cylinder, and not a cone.

“Then we will have the driving units inside the
ship now, for all our power will come from the energy
of the light-matter.

“There will be one new weapon, though. I suppose
it won’t be exceedingly effective, for any polished sur-
face reflects heat, but we can try using the beams of
light we release from the light-matter as. a heat wave.
What do you think about it, Morey?”

“Well — to be frank, I don’t think much of it. I
think it would be a waste of time and material to even
install a heat ray. They would be far less efficient
than our molecular motion ray. I think we had best
just let them alone. I have been wondering how you
expect to use the light energy, though; that is what
the exact absorption mechanism will be, by which you
expect to get the light energy transferred to the driving
mechanism,” replied Wade.

“I think the easiest way to do that is to use the
ordinary cavity radiator type absorption chamber, that
is 100 per cent efficient. The molecular ray being 100
per cent efficient, that means we will have a perfect
machine!”

“Maybe so, Arcot,” interrupted the designing en-
gineer, “but I don’t know all the physical terms you
use!”

“Well, a cavity radiator is a mechanism whereby all
frequencies of radiation are emitted proportionately.
You know, Fuller, there is no single substance that
radiates in the ideal way. A black body will radiate all
frequencies perfectly indiscriminately, just as it will
absorb all frequencies indiscriminately. The ideal black
body cannot be had, but we can see that a perfect ab-
sorbing thing could be got at. What we want is a
surface that will absorb all of every bit of light or heat
or ultra-light that strikes it. Suppose we imagine the
surface to be the surface of the hole in the neck of an
earthenware jug. There is no surface there — it is a
hole — but it fulfills all the other conditions, and acts
as our imaginary surface would. It does, obviously,
absorb everything that strikes it, for there is nothing
to prevent it, and once inside, the chance of the light
getting back out again is so infinitesimal that we can
neglect it, for it is reflected and re-reflected from
side to side. Each time the rough, dark surface takes
its toll, and less light is left. In practically zero time,
the light has been 100 per cent absorbed. Now I propose
to absorb the energy for the ships in a big sort of
thermos bottle, working on that idea. The fact that
light will heat anything it strikes, is, of course, obvious,
so what we will have will be a bottle-shaped cavity like
this, with the neck here, and just in front of the neck
a light-matter destruction apparatus, which will send
all the released light energy into the cavity. The
cavity itself will be painted black inside. We will use
some rough black surface and this will absorb all the
light energy, immediately converting it into heat
energy. That is, the steel bottle here will become very
warm if left undisturbed, but the steel bottle will be

516

AMAZING STORIES QUARTERLY

double, and wo can have a considerable quantity of
helium in the space between the double walls of the
‘thermos bottle.’ The gas will be on the field of the
molecular motion director and will be very cold, and
will promptly absorb the heat of the steel bottle; thus
our driving unit is ready !

“We will need one main horizontal unit for driving
the ship forward or backward and for braking, and
there will be three smaller vertical power units, con-
trolled as usual, so we can have the desired angle of
climb or vertical ascent, and three horizontal power
units for turning and moving sideways. That makes
one big and six small units. In space we will need all
three dimensions equally, and so the sum-power of
the three small ones must equal the power of the main
horizontal driving unit.

“Then there must be a generator aboard to generate
the power for the power tube banks, and for the mag-
net for releasing the light energy, as well as the
electro-static oscillator. The generator will be of the
usual type, driven by power units on the rim of the
drive wheel, and these can be warmed by heating their
atmosphere ; that will be easy enough.

“There will also have to be heating devices for
warming the ships, for they may have to go out into
interstellar space. I have a notion we may pursue the
Nigrians all the way to their home planets, to make
sure they stay, right there until their star has passed
entirely out of our region. At any rate, they must have
heating devices to warm them when they are as far
from the sun as old Neptune, and we certainly will
have to go that far. It was all right for us to go with-
out any heating apparatus in the Solarite for then we
were as near, or nearer the sun than Earth is, and
hence our temperature was maintained by the sun,
but out there in space, the sun will be so far away that
we won’t feel its rays, and if we do go to the Black
Star, we will certainly feel the absence of heat. Of
course, space has tremendously hot molecules in it.
But there are so few molecules there that we won’t
get any heat from them. That device will, however,
be simple enough.

“The ships must be capable of about six or seven
thousand miles a second, and that implies all the ac-
celeration a human being can endure. Since I expect
to make long trips in them, I think we will do best if
w T e make several types of ships. Three should suffice:
a small single man cruiser, with no bunk or living
quarters, just a little power plant and weapon. One
that can jump out of the way of a ray so quickly that
it will be very hard to hit, and at the same time, be-
cause of its ray, be very dangerous. There will have to
be some place for the operator of this ship to sleep and
eat. I think the easiest way to solve that is to have
a large fleet of mother ships — ships with a twenty-man
crew, but still very active, and very deadly. These
should have bunks and living quarters for the crew.
Some men would be sleeping in the bunks all the time.
The men could take turns running the one-man ships
and sleeping. There will also be some ten-man scout
cruisers. These will be used in the same way, but
will have a smaller fleet of ships dependent on them.

“We have as yet found no prospect of success in
insulating against the death ray; their negative catal-
ysis ray seems to pass right through metal if power-
ful enough, as it evidently is in the ship projectors, but
we can’t carry enough metal armor to stop it. I think
our ray is more effective in any case.

“But now let’s get back to work, and you can see
what you can find, Fuller. I think you might call in
the engineers of all the big machine manufacturers
and have them ready to start work at once when the
plans are finally drawn up. Their help will make the

job quicker. You had best get in touch with all the
Venerian men, ffoo. Those new works in Sorthol, Kaxor,
will certainly hamdle a lot.

“I suppose the Interplanetary Patrol men will want
to have something to say, though they are usually pretty
reasonable about taking the verdict of the scientists.
They will have to b'e called in too, I suppose. You
will have to wait to begin the actual work, but we
will get our job done no w, just as quickly as we can.”
As Arcot finished, he rose, and with Wade and Morey
went toward the door. I biller at once agreed, and
headed for the televisophone room.

T HE three physicists at once smarted their work
on determining the approximate Hectors that con-
trolled the release of the energy. Accurate work could
not be done at once, but four significant figv.res in their
results were probably more than enough.

Despite their utmost endeavor and the haj*d work of
all the men of the two worlds, it was nearly s ix weeks
before the fleet had grown to a thing of real im-
portance. The tests they subjected the tiny s hips to
had been more than satisfactory. They behaved won-
derfully, shooting about at terrific speed, and wi th all
the acceleration the men could stand. They ha d de-
veloped a special Rocket Squad, a group of men with
unusual ability to withstand the effect of the acc dera-
tion, and this squad had immediately been given the
new machines and had been put in training. They
were able_ to move with terrific speed, and get tl lere
before any other group. The strain was freqment
enough to make the applicants become unconscious, but
they quickly developed the muscles that had been un-
used for so many ages, since man began to walk up-
right, and they soon were able to stand even greater
accelerations. This rocket squad was composed almost
solely of Terrestrians, for they were used to the
greater gravity of Earth, and could stand greater ac-
celeration strains than could Venerians.

The ships were each equipped with an invisibility
locater, a sensitive short-wave directional receiver,
that would permit the operator to direct his rayjs at
invisible targets. The ships themselves could no t be
made invisible, for they depended in their very 'prin-
ciple on the absorption of light-energy. If tine walls
of every part of the ship were perfectly transparent,
they could absorb no energy at all, and tb.ey would
still be plainly visible — even more so than before!
They must remain visible, but they would a Iso force
the enemy to remain visible. Each ten-mnn ship
carried an old-fashioned cannon that was equipped to
hurl canisters carrying the luminous paint. Tliey had
decided that these would have advantages, even if the
ships were not made invisible, for in space a vihip is
visible only because it reflects or emits light. For
this reason, the ships were not equipped witli any
portholes except in the pilot room and in the olJserva-
tion posts. No light could escape. To reduce the re-
flection to the absolute minimum, the ships had each
been painted with an absolutely black pigment. In
space they would be exceedingly difficult targets.

The heating effect of the sun on the black pigment
when near the great star was rather disagreeably in-
tense, and to cool the little ships they had installed
molecular director power units, which absorbed the
heat in acting to drive the ship. The dark surface
also radiated far more rapid 1 .-/ than would a polished
one, but they could easily warm their ships when too
far from the sun.

Each of the little ships, the' one-man machines, was
equipped with a small machive-gun shooting luminous
paint bullets. One of the^e bullets, landing on a
machine, made it visible for’ at least two hours, and

THE BLACK STAR PASSES

517

as they would cover an area of perhaps thirty square
feet, they were decidedly effective.

It was found that ray practice was rather compli-
cated. The government had had ranges set up in the
great mountain districts, away from any valuable prop-
erty, but they soon found that even this was not
enough. The rays very quickly demolished the targets,
but they were not satisfied with that, and already
showed very good progress toward demolishing the
mountains as well. Since they had built all the ships
with the molecular director ray only, training became
a real problem. The few ships that had been made
before the great war came, were not representative
of the new ones, and they alone were equipped with the
light-ray-training projectors. They could not afford
to waste time making the light-projectors, so the
problem was solved by using the barren surface of the
moon and the little planetoids beyond Mars and Mars
itself, as a proving ground.

The trips out into the outer limits of the Solar Sys-
tem were true trips of exploration, for these were the
first ships to get so far from Earth. The slow-moving
solar power ships were still struggling over the belt
of asteroids in most cases. The terrific danger from
the many little planets here had made it impossible
to continue their outward course in the plane of the
system, but had forced them to fly “above” it. The
Solar System is like a great spinning wheel, all its
parts lie in practically one plane and the planets revolve
in orbits in that plane. The asteroids are in a flat
ring about the sun, like the rings of Saturn, and all
that was necessary to pass them was to leave the
plane of the system and fly “above” them, dropping
back to the plane on the other side of the menace. It
was like passing a two-dimensional wall; just go over
it in the third dimension. But this passing had been
long and cold for the men in the solar power ships,
and if anything went wrong with their power plant,
they would be forced to remain there forever, for they
would be caught in the orbit.

T HE ships were sent out in squadrons as fast as
the ships could be finished, and the men could be
brought together and trained. They were establishing
a great shield of ships across all that section of the
system whence the Nigrians had appeared, and they
hoped to intercept the next attack before it reached
Earth, for they well knew that the next attack would
be in full force.

Arcot had gone to the conference held on Venus with
the other men who had investigated the great wrecks,
and each scientist had related his view of things and
his ideas. Arcot’s idea of the black star was not very
favorably received. As he had explained to Wade
and Fuller, who had not gone, there was good reason
for it. Though the scientists were all ready to admit
that these men must have come from a great distance,
and they agreed that they lived in an atmosphere of
hydrogen, and judging from their pale skins, that
they were not used to the rays of a sun, still they
insisted on the theory of an outer planet of the sun.

“You remember,” explained Arcot, “several years ago
there was a considerable discussion about the existence
of a planet still further out from the sun than Neptune.
It is well known that there are a number of irregulari-
ties in the orbits of the outer two planets that can’t
seem to fall under the explanation applicable to the
other planets, and an outer planet could be given the
necessary mass and orbit to do the things they observe.

“This attack from outer space was immediately
taken as proof of that theory, and it was very easily
supported, too. My one good point that stood for any
length of time under their attacks was the fact that

those ships weren’t developed in a year, nor a century,
and that the chemical constitution of the men was so
different. There were no new elements discovered,
except the light-matter, but they are rather wondering
about the great difference of earthly chemical con-
stitution and the constitution of these invaders.

“They had one argument that was just about enough
to throw mine out, though they pointed to the odds
against the thing happening. You know, of course,
how a planet is formed? They are the results of tidal
action on two passing suns.

“You can imagine two mighty stars careening
through space and then drawing slowly nearer, till at
last they come within a few billion miles of each other,
and their gigantic masses reach out and bind them
with a mighty chain of gravity. Their titanic masses
swing about each other, each trying to pull free, and
continue its path about the center of the galactic
system. But as their huge bulks come nearer, the chains
that bind them become stronger and stronger, and the
tremendous pull of the one gargantuan fire ball on the
other raises titanic tides of flame, great streamers of
gas shoot out into space, and all the space about is
lighted by the flaming suns, their usual tremendous
activity stirred up as by a giant poker, and even more
fuel is heaped on their fires. The pull of gravity be-
comes more and more intense, and as the one circles
the other, the tide is pulled up, and the mighty ball
of fire, which, for all its existence has been practically
motionless as far as rotation goes, begins to acquire
a greater and greater rotational speed as the tidal drag
urges it on. The flames begin to reach higher and
higher and the tides, now urged from the sun by cen-
trifugal force, rise still greater, and as the swinging
suns struggle to break loose, the flaming gas is pulled
up and up, and becomes a mighty column of fire, a
column that reaches out across three — four — a dozen
millions of miles of space and joins the two stars at
last, as the stalactites and stalagmites grow together.
A flaming tie of matter joins them, two titanic suns,
and a mighty rope of fire binds them, while far
mightier chains of gravity hold them together.

“But now their original velocity reasserts itself, and
having spiraled about each other for who can say how
long — a year — a million years seems more probable —
but still only an instant in the life of a star, they begin
to draw apart, and the flaming column is stretched
out, and ever thinner it grows, and the two stars at
last separate. But now the gas will never fall back
into the sun. Like some giant flaming cigar it reaches
out into space and it will stay thus, for it has been
set in rotation about the sun at such a speed as is
needed to form an orbit. The giant mass of gas is,
however, too cool to continue to develop energy from
matter, for it was only the surface of the sun, and cool.
As it cools still further, there appear in it definite
condensations, and the beginnings of the planets are
there. The great filament that stretched from sun to
sun was cigar-shaped, and so the matter is more plenti-
ful toward the center, and larger planets develop. Thus
Jupiter and Saturn are far larger than any of the
others. The two ends are tapering, thus Earth is
larger than Venus, which is larger than Mercury, and
Uranus and Neptune are both smaller than Saturn.

“Mars and the asteroids are hard to explain. Per-
haps it is easier to understand when we remember
that the planets thus formed must necessarily have
been rotating in eccentric orbits when they were first
born, and these planets came too near the sun while
gaseous, or nearly so, and Mars lost much of its mat-
ter, while the other, which now exists only as the
asteroids, broke up.

“But now that other flaming star has retired, wan-

518

AMAZING STORIES QUARTERLY

dering on through space. The star has left its traces,
for behind it there are planets where none existed
before. But remember that it, too, must have planets
now.

All this happened some 2,000 million years ago.

“But in order that it might happen, it requires that
two stars pass within the relatively short distance of

a few billion miles of each other. Space is not over-
crowded with matter, you know. The density of the
stars has been compared with twenty tennis balls roam-
ing about the 8,000-mile sphere that the Earth fills
up — twenty tennis balls in some 270 billion cubic miles
of space. Now imagine two of those tennis balls — •
with plenty of room to wander in — passing within a
few yards of each other. The chances are about as
good as the chances of two stars passing close enough
to make planets.

“Now let us consider another possibility.

“The Black Star, as I told you, has planets. That
means that it must have thus passed close to another
star. Now we have it coming close to another sun
that has been similarly afflicted. The chances of that
happening are inconceivably small. It is one chance

The ships behind it, unable to stop so suddenly,
piled up on it in chaotic wreckage! A vast halo of
shining gas spread out fifty thousand miles about.

THE BLACK STAR PASSES

519

in billions that the planets will form. Two stars must
pass close to each other, when they have all space to
wander about in. Then those afflicted stars separate,
and one of them passes close by a new star, which has
thus been similarly afflicted with that one chance in
billions — well, that is then a chance in billions of
billions.

“So my theory was called impossible. I don’t know
but what it is. Besides, I thought of an argument the
other men didn’t throw at me. I’m surprised they
didn’t too — the explanation of the strange chemical
constitution of these men of a solar system planet would
not be so impossible. It is quite possible that they
live on a planet revolving about the sun which is, never-
theless, a planet of another star. It is quite conceivable
to me that the chemical constitution of Neptune and
Uranus will be found to be quite different from that of
the rest of our planets. The two filaments drawn out
from the suns may not have mingled, though I think
they did, but it is quite conceivable that, just before
parting, the sun tore one planet, or even two or three,
from the other star.

“And that w’ould explain those men.

“My other ideas were accepted. They agreed on the
idea of the release of material energy, and the source
of their power, but they couldn’t agree with me on
that!” Arcot puffed at his pipe meditatively for sev-
eral moments, then stood up, and stretched.

“Ho — I wish they would let me go on active duty
out there!” he grinned at his friends. He had been re-
jected very emphatically when he tried to enlist in the
air patrol. The Interplanetary Governments had de-
cided flatly that he was needed too much as a scientist
to go as a pilot of a small ship.

And over all the worlds of the Solar System the great
construction plants were humming with activity. The
great shops were turning out the new machines at top
speed, and getting their fuel from the wrnecks of the
great Invaders’ ships. Each machine needed only a
little, however, for the energy content was so immense.
And those ships had been very big.

A LREADY there was a fleet of the little ships out
. there in space, and with every passing hour other
ships left for the patrol, always adding to the fighting
force that was to engage the attacking force deep in
space, where no stray ships might filter through to de-
stroy the cities of Earth or Venus. The plants were
now turning out ships at such a high rate that the
training of their operators was the most serious prob-
lem, and one that had been finally solved by a very
abbreviated training course in the actual manipulation
of the controls on the home planet, and subsequent
training as the squadrons raced on their courses away
from Earth. The beams used were molecular motion
beams, modified however, so that they did not affect the
molecules, and their presence was detected by the
ionization they would produce in the atmosphere within
the ship. A small electroscope was kept charged. The
ray would discharge this and the men would then sig-
nal the “enemy” that a hit had been scored. In this
way actual special warfare was carried on in practice.
The training was far more valuable than any number
of hours of terrestrial training, for here no ionization
would serve to show the path of the rays.

It was soon decided that there must be another
service besides that of the ordinary ships. One plant
was devoted to making huge interstellar liners. These
ships were made nearly a quarter of a mile long, and
while still diminutive in comparison to the giant
Nigrian ships, they were still decidedly large. But
twelve of these could be completed within the next
month, it was found, and one of these must be used as

an officers’ headquarters ship. It was quickly recognized
that the officers must be within a few hundred thousand
miles of the actual engagements, for light traveled
186,000 miles a second, and they must very frequently
make decisions in less than a half minute. If a mes-
sage were to be sent to Earth and returned, as long as
two hours for each direction was required.

The ship must not be brought too near the front lest
the officers be endangered and the entire engagement
lost for want of the organizing central headquarters.
The final solution had been the huge central control
ship.

The other large vessels were to be used to carry food
and supplies. They were not to enter the engagement,
for their huge size would make them as vulnerable to
the tiny darting mites of space as the Nigrian ships had
been to the Interplanetary Patrol. The little ships
could not conveniently stock for more than a week of
engagement, then drop back to these warehouses of
space, and go forward again for action.

Throughout the long wait the officers of the Solarian
forces organized their forces to the limit of their abil-
ity, planning each move of their attack. Space had
been marked off into a great three-dimensional map,
and each ship carried a small replica, the planets mov-
ing as they did in their orbits. The space between
the planets was divided off into definite points in a
series of Cartesian co-ordinates, the sun being the
origin, and the plane of the elliptic being the X-Y plane.

The OX line was taken pointing toward one of the
brightest of the fixed stars that was in the plane of
the elliptic. The entire solar system -was thus marked
off as had been the planets long ages before, into a sys-
tem of three dimensional latitude and longitude. This
was imperative, in order to assure the easy location of
the point of first attack, and to permit the entire fleet
to come into position there. A scattered guard was
to remain free, to avoid any false attacks and a later
attack from a point millions of miles distant. Earth
and Venus were each equipped with gigantic ray pro-
jectors, mighty ray guns that could destroy anything,
even a body as large as the moon, at a distance of ten
thousand miles. Still, a ship might get through, and
with the death ray — what fearful toll might be exacted
from a vast city such as Chicago — with its thirty mil-
lions ! Or Karos, on Venus, with its fifteen and a half
millions?

The tension became greater and greater as, with each
passing day, the men grew to expect the call from the
far-flung guard. The main bulk of the fleet had been
concentrated in the center of their great spherical
shell of ships. They could only wait — and watch — ■
and prepare ! Hundreds of miles apart, yet near enough
so that no ship of any size could pass them undetected,
and behind there were ships with delicate apparatus
that would detect any foreign body of any size what-
ever anywhere within a hundred thousand miles of
them. But these ships could not be successfully op-
erated when near each other, so over all space they,
reached, scattered about 75,000 miles apart.

The Solar System was prepared to repel boarders
from the vast sea of Space!

* * *

T AJ LAMOR gazed down at the great place below
him. In it there was close packed a great mass
of ships, a concourse of Titans of Space, great space
ships, ships that were soon to set out to win not a
nation, not even a world, but to conquer a system, and
to win for their owners a vast new sun, a sun that
would light them, and heat them for long ages to come.

He gazed down at the vast metal hulls glistening
softly in the dull light of far-off stars, and artificial

520

AMAZING STORIES QUARTERLY

lighting system. From the distance came to him the
tapping and the humming of the working machines
below as they strove to put to the great ships the
last touches.

He raised his eyes to gaze at the far-off horizon,
where a great yellow star flamed brilliantly against
the black velvet of space, for their atmosphere was
too thin to color the sky.

Thoughtfully he gazed at the flaming yellow point.

He had much to consider now. They had met a new
race, a race of barbarians in some ways, yet they had
not forgotten the lessons they had learned; they were
not decadent. Between his aeon-old people and their
new home stood this force of strange men, a race so
young that its age could readily be counted in mik
lenniums, but withal a strong, intelligent race. And
to a race that had known no war for so many seons,
it was an unthinkable thing that they must kill other
living intelligent beings in order that they might live.
They had no need of moving, some men had argued,
they might stay where they were forever, and never
find any need for leaving their planet. Their worlds
would never change now. What reason had they to
kill off this other race? These were the decadent sons
of a mighty race speaking, and Taj Lamor had grown
to hate that voice. But there were other men, men
who had gone to that other world, men who had seen
vast oceans of sparkling, clear water, showering 'from
their ruffled surfaces the brilliant light of a great, hot
sun, and they had seen towering masses of mountains
that reached high into the blue sky of a natural at-
mosphere, their mighty flanks clothed with a lush-
green growth ; natural plants in abundance !

Their eyes had looked down on the sparkling beauty
of that sapphire jewel of liquid in its wondrous setting
of green, and the blue of air behind.

And best of all, they had fought and seen action, such
as no member of their race had known in untold ages.
They knew Adventure and Excitement, and they had
learned things that no member of their ancient race
had known for long seons. They had learned the mean-
ing of advancement and change. They had a new
ardor, a new strength, a new emotion to drive their
arguments across, and those who would have held them
back became enthusiasts themselves. Enthusiasm may
be contagious, but the spirit of their decadence was
rapidly failing before this new urge. Here was their
last chance and they must take it ; they would !

They had lost many men in that battle on the strange
world, but their race was intelligent; they learned
quickly; the small ships had been very hard targets,
while their big ships were too easy to strike. They
must have small ships, yet they must have large ships
for cargo, and for the high speed driving apparatus.
The small ships were not able to accelerate to the ter-
rific speed needed. Once their velocity had been
brought up to the desired value, it was easy to main-
tain it with the infinitely small friction of space as the
only retarding force; one atom per cubic inch was all
they must meet. This would not hold them up, but
the great amount of fuel and the power equipment
needed to accelerate to the desired speed could not
be packed into the small ship. Into the vast -holds of
the huge ships the small ships were packed, long shin-
ing rows of little metal ships. Tiny they were, but
they could dart, and twist and turn as swiftly as could
the ships they had met on that other world — tiny ships
that darted about with incredible suddenness, a target
that seemed impossible to hit. These ships would be
a match for those flashing motes, the ships of the
Yellow Sun. Now it might be that their great trans-
port and battle ships could settle down to those worlds
and arrange them for their own people!

And they had discovered new weapons, too. One of
their mightiest was a new apparatus, one that had
been forgotten for countless ages. A model of it was
in existence in some forgotten museum on a deserted
planet, and with it long forgotten tomes that told of
its principles, and of its consequences. Invisibility
was now at their command. It was an ancient weapon,
but might be exceedingly effective!

And one other. They had developed a new thing!
They had not learned of it in books, it was their in-
vention! They did not doubt .that there were other
machines like -it told of in their museums, but the idea
was original to them. It was a beam of electrical
oscillatory waves, a bea'm of what we would call radio
waves, projected with thousands of horsepower of
energy, and it would be absorbed by any conductor.
They could melt a ship with this !

And thus that great courtyard had been filled with
Giants of Space ! And in each of these thousand great
warships -there nestled three thousand tiny one-man
ships. A thousand five hundred miles the great metal
bulks alone would stretch, and with them would go a
great swarm of tiny stinging ships, like some horde
of stinging wasps swarming about their nest.

Here was a sight to inspire any race!

Taj Lamor watched as the last of the working ma-
chines dragged its slow way out of the great ships.
They were finished! The men were already in. them,
waiting to start, and now there was an enthusiasm
and an activity that had not been before; now the men
were anxious to get that long journey completed and
to be there, in that other system!

Taj Lamor entered his little special car and shot
swiftly down to the giant bulks. Now he was step-
ping out of his little car, and walking over to the
tube transite, ready for the trip to the nose of the
giant ship. Behind him other men were quickly mov-
ing his little car to a locked cradle berth beside long
rows of similar cars.

A quarter of an hour later the people who were to
remain here on this planet saw the first of the mon-
sters of the space rise slowly from the ground and
leap swiftly forward, -then, one every ten seconds, the
others leapt in swift pursuit, rushing swiftly across
half a world to the giant space lock that would let
them out into the void. In a long, swift column of
sweeping ships they rushed on. Then one at a time
they passed out into the mighty sea of space, Pirates
of Space! From one system, careening on its way
through the void, they were sweeping out to another
system, to take it, and overrun it with their people!
In space they quickly formed and set out.

As by magic, far to the left of their flight, there
suddenly appeared a similar flight of giant ships, and
then, to the right, and above, another seemed to leap
out of nothingness as the ships of the other planets
came into sight. Quickly they formed a giant cone
about their leader’s ship, a protecting, and yet a power-
fully offensive formation.

Day after day they sped on through the darkness
of the void. Then, as the yellow star flamed brighter
and brighter before them, they slowed their ships till
the small ships could safely be released into space.

Like a swarm of gnats flying about giant eagles of
space the little ships circled the mighty masses of the
parent ships. So huge were they, that in the com-
bined masses of the thousand ships from each of the
four planets, there rested sufficient gravitational at-
traction to force the little ships to take orbits about
them. At a hundred thousand miles about them re-
volved a slow turning sphere of tiny ships, scarcely
visible to the men aboard the giant liners, but slowly,
steadily turning. The huge ships themselves had to

THE BLACK STAR PASSES

521

use some force to overcome the attraction of one ship
on the other, and a slight push was used, which made
it far easier to maintain their formation than would
the circling of the ships.

I T was well beyond the orbit of Neptune that they
met the first of the Solarian fleet. The tension
that had been in both fleets throughout the preceding
days was suddenly snapped, and like great machines
set into sudden motion, or huge boulders, balanced,
given the last push that sends them spinning with
destructive violence down the slope, the two great
fleets went into action.

It was only a little scout that they met at first, a
little ten-man cruiser, but waiting only to receive a
reply from headquarters after it had wirelessed the
message of their attack, it was sent into action. Some
of the generals wanted to wait and try to get the entire
fleet up as a surprise attack, but it was decided that
it was more important to know if the Invaders had
any new weapons.

The Nigrians had no warning, for a ten-man cruiser
was invisible to them, though the terrific bulk of their
ships stood out plainly, lighted by a blazing sun. No
need here to make the sun stand still while the battle
was finished! There was no change out here in all
time! The first intimation of attack that the Nigrians
had was the sudden splitting and destruction of the
leading ship. Then, before they could realize what was
happening, thirty-five other destructive molecular mo-
tion beams were tearing through space to meet them!
The little ten-man cruiser and its flight of one-man
ships was in action! Twenty-one great ships crum-
pled and burst noiselessly in the void, their gases
belching out into space in a great shining halo of light
as the sun’s light struck it.

Unable to see their tiny enemies, who now were
striking as swiftly, as desperately as possible, know-
ing that death was practically certain, hoping only to
destroy a more than equal number of the giants, they
played their beams of death about them, taking care

to miss their own ships as much as possible — still

Another ship silently crumpled and suddenly one ship
right in the line of the flight was brought to a sud-
den halt as all its molecules were reversed. The ships
behind it, unable to stop so suddenly, piled up on it in
chaotic wreckage! A vast halo of shining gas spread
out fifty thousand miles about, blinding further the
other ships, for the radiance about them made it im-
possible to see their tiny enemies.

Now other of the Solarian ships were coming swiftly
to the attack. Suddenly a combination of three of the
ten-man cruisers stopped another of the great ships
instantaneously. There was another soundless crash,
and the giant mass of wreckage that heaped suddenly
jup glowed dully red from the energy of impact.

But now the little ships of the Invaders got into
action. They had been delayed by the desperate at-
tempts of the big ships to wipe out their enemies
with the death rays, and they could not cover the great
distances without some delay.

When a battle spreads itself out through a ten-
thousand mile cube of space — through a thousand bil-
lion cubic miles of space — it is impossible to cover it
instantaneously with any machine.

Already nearly a hundred and fifty of the giant
liners of space had gone into making that colossal junk
pile here in space. They must protect them! And it
was that flight of small ships that did protect them.
Many of the Solarians went down to death under their
rays. The death rays were exceedingly effective, but
the heat rays were not able to get quite as long a
range, and they were easily detected by the invisibility

locaters, which meant sure death, for a molecular mo-
tion ray would be reaching over there very quickly,
once they had been located.

The main fleet of the Solar System was already on
its way, and every moment was drawing nearer to
this running battle, for the great ships of the Nigrians
had, although they were entering the system cautiously,
been going at a very high speed, as we measure inter-
planetary speeds. The entire battle had been a run-
ning encounter between the two forces. The Solaria^
force, invisible because af its small size, was certainly
getting the best of the bargain so far, but now that
the odds were changing, that the small ships had come
into the encounter, engaging them at close range, they
were not having so easy a time of it.

It would be many hours before the full strength of
the Solarian fleet could be brought to bear on the
enemy. They were not able to retire and await their
arrival, for they must delay the Nigrian fleet. If even
one of those great ships should safely reach the two
planets behind them !

But within a half hour of the original signal, the
Rocket Squad had thrown itself into the battle with a
fervor and abandon that has given that famous divi-
sion a name that will last forever.

The small ships of the Nigrians were beginning to
take a terrific toll in the thin ranks of the Solarians.
The coming of the Rocket Squad had been welcomed
indeed! They were able to maneuver as quickly as the
enemy; the little ships, all one-man ships, were harder
to spot than the Solarian ten and twenty-man ships.
The Solarian one-man ships were even smaller than
the Nigrian one-man ships, and some of these did a
tremendous amount of damage. The heat ray was,
even when working at full capacity, quite ineffective
against the ten-man ships, when produced by the small
mechanism of the Nigrian one-man ships, but the great
rays from the monster interstellar liners were fatal.
The little one-man ships could not heat a ten-man
ship beyond the capacity of their molecular motion
cooling plant. By absorbing the heat and turning it
into motion, they literally made the enemy supply
them with their power directly. They were already sup-
plying all the power anyway, but now they even con-
served this supply!

But the one-man Solarian ships had a truly deadly
plan as far as the Nigrians were concerned. The plan
was officially frowned upon, for it was out and out
suicide. The small ships were directed at one of the
monster machines, all the power units on full force,
then the man jumped from his ship, clothed in an alti-
tude suit. Death rays could not stop it, and with the
momentum gained, they could not make it less deadly
with their heat rays, for, molten, it was still a deadly
thing. A projectile weighing twenty-two tons, moving
a hundred miles a second, is enough to destroy any-
thing man can lift off a planet! Their very speed
made it impossible to dodge them, and they usually
found their mark. The fusion would destroy a molecu-
lar motion apparatus before it came within range, this
was certain. And sometimes the pilot was picked up!

The Solarians began to wonder why it was the
Nigrian fleet was decreasing so rapidly — certainly they
had not caused all that damage! Then suddenly they
found the answer — when one of their ships — then
another — and another fell victim to a pale red ray that
showed up like a ghostly pillar of luminosity coming
from nowhere and going nowhere! The answer was
easy — the ships were becoming invisible. The invisi-
bility detectors were being overloaded now, and the
hunt was hard, while the Nigrians were slipping past
them, and at the same time many of them were si-
lently destroying their ships! The molecular motion

522

AMAZING STORIES QUARTERLY

rays were quite effective on an invisible ship — once it
had been found. They were destroying the Nigrians
quite as rapidly as they were being destroyed, but the
great trouble was that the Nigrians were escaping
them ! The luminous paint bombs became effective now.
All enemy ships were shot at with these missiles, and
invisibility forestalled. In space, bullets go on forever.

B UT the scouts had done their duty now, for, as the
watchers in the rear windows cheered, they saw
the dark bulk of the main fleet coming near, a scarcely
visible cloud of tiny, darting metal ships. The battle
so far had been a preliminary engagement of the
scouts! Now came the main engagement. The huge
ships of the Nigrians were forced to stop their at-
tack, and releasing the last of the small ships, retire
to a distance, protected by the screen of small ships,
for they were helpless against these swift-moving ones.
The small ships had all been equipped with invisibility
apparatus, but now that there were plenty of Solarian
ships, they were more conspicuous when invisible than
when visible, for the radio detector apparatus would
pick them out at once, and all that was necessary was
to send a beam of molecular motion controlling vibra-
tions down the radio beam. The Nigrians soon learned
that this policy was deadly and stopped using their
invisibility. The Solarians also stopped shooting their
luminous outlets, for any ship, so struck, was certain
to be destroyed, and if the outlets didn’t hit a foe they
kept on going till they did hit something! The entire
Nigrian fleet was beginning to feel desperate now, for
they were cornered in the most undesirable position
possible; they were outside the Solarian fleet, and their
ships were lighted by the glare of the sun, while the
Solarian ships were all in such a position that the
enemy could see only the “night” side of them — the
shadowed side — and, as there was no air here to dif-
fuse the light, they were exceedingly hard to see. Into
the bargain, the radium paint was making life a brief
and flitting thing! The little ships would dart sud-
denly forward at three or four hundred miles a second,
hoping to break through the Solarian fleet, but still
the Solarian beams traveled at the ultimate speed, the
speed of light, and the racing ships would suddenly
crumple, and a halo of glowing gas would surround
them as their atmosphere escaped. The Nigrians were
paying a terrific toll in this first engagement! They
could not spread their death rays to cover the entire
Solarian fleet, for they lacked the necessary power,
and their heat rays were likewise useless here. The
great ships behind could not use their rays effectively,
for their small ships must be between them and their
adversary.

At last the Solarian generals tried a ruse, a ruse
they hoped would work on these people, but they who
had never before had to plan a war in space, were not
sure that these people had not had experience in that
art. The conditions of spatial warfare are far dif-
ferent from anything else imaginable. Here there is
constant night and yet constant day. The position
makes all the difference in the world. Or should one
say in the universe? With the sun at their backs,
the Solarians had a tremendous advantage. There were
a thousand new things to consider, and not the least
of these was the fact that there was perfect mobility
in three dimensions. Never before had these condi-
tions alone prevailed. Even an airplane is limited to
about twenty miles range in the vertical plane, but
here there were no limits whatsoever. All formations
must be both defensive and offensive in all three di-
mensions. It required quick and accurate thinking ! It
was indeed fortunate for them that their enemy was
even less skilled than they.

But the Solarians had the advantage of thousands
of years of planetary warfare to rely on. This stood
them in good stead now and a new ruse was on trial.

The Nigrians were rallying rapidly now. To their
surprise, the forces of the Solarians were dwindling
rapidly, and no matter how desperately this remnant
fought, they could not hold back the entire force of
the Nigrian small ships altogether. At last it was
obvious that the small ships could completely engage
the Solarian ships!

Quickly the giant ships behind formed a great dense
cone of attack, and, at a given signal, the small ships
cleared a hole for them through the great disc-shaped
shield of the Solarian forces. And with all their rays
playing straight ahead, the giant machines plunged
through the disc of ships at close to 400 miles a second.
They had broken through the Solarian defense, and
were on their way to the unprotected planets !

The Solarian ships had at once closed the gap be-
hind them, and nearly twenty of the giant ships had
crumpled into wreckage as a Solarian beam found it,
but for the most part the remnant of the Solarian forces
were far too busy with the small ships to attack the
large ones! Now, as the monster engines of destruc-
tion raced on toward the planets still close to two bil-
lion miles away, they knew that, far behind them, their
small ships were engaging the Solarians. Nearly all
of their small ships were back there now, but all of
the Solarians were held in check! They were free to
attack !

Then, from nowhere, came the terrific attack. Nearly
five thousand twenty-man ships of Earth and Venus, in-
visible in the dark of space, suddenly leaped into life as
the giant ships passed by! Their crushing destroying
rays playing over the nigh-helpless bulks, the huge ships
were crumbling into colossal junk heaps here in space;
now, the last of their small guard of small ships stripped
from them, they fell easy prey to the mass of darting
ships. Faster than they could keep count, their mighty
warships of space were crumbling under this sudden at-
tack! The ruse had worked perfectly! Nearly all the
ten and one-man ships had been left back there in the
orinigal disc, while all the twenty-man ships and a
few hundred each of the ten and one-man ships
dropped back to form a great ring twenty thousand
miles further back. The Nigrian small ships had been
stripped from their giant parents by the disc, and as
the great ships plowed their way through, unprotected
now, they had fallen easy victims to the ring forma-
tion behind!

There was but one thing to do now. They were de-
feated. They must return to their far off black star
and leave these people in possession of their worlds.
Their great force was nearly wiped out, only the small
ships remained, and these could not be completely car-
ried in their great ships. There were too few now.
They fell back swiftly, passing again through the disc,
losing thirty more ships here, as the small ships
formed a sphere of darting metal about them, then
raced swiftly away from this great fleet of enemies.
The Solarians, however, did not seem content. Their
ships were forming in a giant hollow cylinder and, as
the sphere of the Nigrians retreated, their rays play-
ing behind them, the cylinder moved forward till it
surrounded them, and they were racing together toward
that far distant sun. The Solar end of the cylinder
was closed now, closed by a group of huge ships that
rivaled their own mile and a half long warships in
size. The Nigrians had stopped using their rays now,
and the Solarians followed them in armed neutrality,
not molesting so long as they were not molested. The
trip was slowed, for not all the little ships could be
carried, and all must go at the pace of the slowest.

THE BLACK STAR PASSES

523

Many days this strange flight lasted, till at last the
great yellow star, our sun, had faded in the distance
and was only a tiny glowing pinpoint in the far, far
distance. Then, suddenly visible out of the darkness,
a strange, dark world loomed ahead, and their captive
ships settled swiftly toward it. Through the air-
locks the great ships settled into their world. No
action was taken so long as the Solarian ships were
not menaced, but for eight long months these darting
shapes hung above the four circling worlds of Nigra,
the Black Star.

Then at last the astronomers of Earth and Venus
sent through the billions of miles of ether their mes-
sage of safety. The guard could leave, and the sun
they guarded would soon be too far from Earth and
Venus to make any attack possible. The suns had
passed, never again to meet!

Neptune’s orbit they had passed many many bil-
lions of miles away, for now the young planet circled
a sun so old it was dark — black! It had been captured
by Nigra!

I T was a different system the men of the Solar Sys-
tem returned to. There were now nine planets, two
new ones that Sun had captured from Nigra, in return
for Neptune, and all the planets had shifted a bit in
their orbits. Most of the major planets had been on
the far side of the sun, far too distant to be affected
by the gravity of Nigra to any permanent extent. Only
Neptune, Earth and Venus had been on the near side.
Had they been directly in line with the wandering star
they would have been pulled out from the sun by the
attraction, but, like a stretched spring, the gravitation
of the great mass of matter that is our sun would
have pulled them right back into their old orbits when
the strange force had passed on. In order to change
the orbits of the planets they must either be speeded
up in their path or slowed down, or the mass of the
sun must be decreased. Changing the mass of the earth
would not affect its orbit to any practical degree, the
mass of the earth being too slight in comparison to
that of the sun to greatly alter the gravitational pull-
centrifugal force ratio. However, increasing the speed
in its orbit will increase the centrifugal force, with-
out increasing the gravitational pull, and consequently
the earth will fall away from the sun. If the speed
be decreased, the force that keeps us from the sun is
decreased and we draw nearer.

When the Black Star passed the Sun, Earth had been
rounding the sun in its orbit in such a curve that it
was going almost directly away from the Black Star.
The gravitational pull of the distant Star had slowed
its orbital motion considerably, and as the giant brake
of gravitation fell on it, the speed dropped, and Earth
promptly drew nearer the sun, thus acquiring more
energy, for it was a pure mechanical fall. This process
had repeated itself as long as the star had been near,
the ultimate result being that, when the Star had
passed, Earth was eleven and a quarter million miles
nearer the Sun, though the Black Star had tried to
pull it away !

The exact reverse had been true of Venus. Though
on the same side of the Sun as the Black Sun, it had
just been entering that position, and so was moving
directly toward the Black Star. Here were the con-
ditions that permitted the planet to fall toward Nigra,
gaining speed as it did so. It therefore took an orbit
which had a higher potential, further from the Sun.
It moved nearly eight millions of miles from the Sun.

What the effect will be on the planets, we cannot say
yet. The effect is certainly not very great, though
somewhat greater warmth is felt on Earth, and a bit
less on Venus. However, the elliptic of Earth’s orbit

gave us the effect of several millions of miles approach
and retardation from the sun each year, and the result
was not tremendous. The effects will, however, be ex-
ceedingly interesting.

And the Solar System has just passed through an
experience which was probably unique in all the his-
tory of the mighty Nebula of which our Sun is an in-
finitesimal part. The chances that one star, surrounded
by a system of planets, should pass within a hundred
billion miles of another star, similarly accompanied, was
one in billions of billions. That both systems should
have been inhabited by intelligent races

It is easy to understand why the scientists could
not believe Arcot’s theory of attack from another sun
until they had actually seen those other worlds !

In that war of two solar systems we learned much
and lost much, too, perhaps. Yet, in all, perhaps we
gained, for those two planets will mean tremendous
things to us. Already the scientists are at work on
the vast museums and ancient laboratories that there
were on them and every day new things are being
discovered. We lost many men, but we have saved our
worlds, and we have learned the secret of the energy
of matter from them, the secret of that new light
metal, and we have but scratched the surface of a
science that is at least a thousand million years old!

# * *

T AJ LAMOR looked out across the void of space
toward a distant point of yellow light. Far in the
distance it glowed, and every second saw it a hundred
miles further from him. They had lost their struggle
for life and a new sun, he had thought, when he turned
back, defeated, from that distant sun, but time had
brought new hope.

They had lost many men in that struggle, and their
dwindling resources had been strained to the limit,
but now there was hope, for a new spirit had been
born in their race. They had fought, and lost, but
they had gained a spirit of adventure that had been
dormant for millions of years!

Below him, in the great dim mass that was their
city, he knew that many laboratories were now in full
swing of active work. Things were being discovered,
and rediscovered. New uses were being found for old
things, and their daily life was changing. It was again
a new race, rejuvenated by a change!

As the great sea of yellow fire that was that strange
sun had faded to a point behind their fleeing ships,
Taj Lamor had felt that his race was doomed to die,
as their dead planets circled a dead sun, their last chance
was forever lost. But now he had hope, for new ideas
had come to them, and new methods of doing things.

Taj Lamor shifted his gaze to a' blazing point of light,
where a titanic sea of flame was burning with a bril-
liance and power that, despite the greater distance,
made the remote yellow sun seem, pale and dim. The
blue-white glow told of a monster star, and a star
that was far brighter than the sun they had left. It
was the brightest star in their heavens, and it is the
brightest in ours. We call it Sirius, but on their an-
cient star charts it was listed as a red giant, named
Tongsil-239-e, which meant it was of the fifth magni-
tude and very distant. But in the long ages that had
passed since that classification was made it had be-
come a mighty sun; it was a star in its prime.

How were they to reach it ! It was eight and a half
light years away!

Their search for the force that would swing a world
in its orbit had at last been successful. It was too late
now to aid them in their fight for the yellow sun, but
they might yet use it — they might tear their planets
from their orbits, and drive them as free bodies across
( Continued on page 574)

By David H. Keller, M.D.

Author of “The Flying Threat,” “Revolt of the Pedestrians etc.

oomeranging
’itound the Moon

P ROBABLY one of the most mystifying of the world’s motion problems,
a competitor to the puzzle of the gyroscope , is the boomerang. This seem-
ingly uninteresting crooked piece of wood is thrown forward as if to strike
the earth fifty feet in advance of the thrower. It turns flatwise, rises possibly
a hundred feet in the air, curves around and returns to fall perhaps at its
starting point. Its possibilities might be made unlimited. Dr. Keller sug-
gests a way, and, in his usual manner , brings his story to a surprise conclusion.

Illustrated by MOREY

“ AVIATION is at a standstill,” complained the
president of Aviation Consolidated. “The in-
ventiveness of man went only so far in the
jL JL conquest of the air, and then came to an abrupt
pause. Meantime, there seems to be a deadly
satisfaction, as far as the great masses of humanity are
concerned, and business suffers accordingly.”

“But we are doing business,” said the secretary.
“Certainly, but it is pretty dull business. I can re-
member when we first started the combined rail and air
service from New York to San Francisco. The fare was
over two hundred and we had space reserved for a year
in advance. The same thing happened when the trans-
oceanic service was started. People became air-minded.
Everyone who took one of those long air trips wanted a
plane of his own. Everyone wanted to be his own pilot;
consequently, we sold planes by the thousands and by
the millions. Now it almost seems that the point of
saturation has been reached.”

“Why not lower the price?”

“That will not sell any more planes. Everybody that
wants one is easily able to buy one. V 7 hat we must do
is to find some new mode of flying, some novel method of
travel that will stir the flagging interest of the average
man and make him enthusiastic enough to sacrifice
everything in order to have one of the new planes. You
remember the radio? Nobody wanted a radio when
television became perfected enough to be put into the
average home. We want to do something like that with
the air service. Only by doing that can we revive the
early rush of business and make a profit that will please
our stockholders.

“We have a large number of inventors working for us.”
“Yes, but they are all on the wrong track. They want
to make flying safer, easier. What we need is some-
thing that will make it harder. One of the things that
has taken the pep out of the sport of eagles has been

the efforts we have made to make it safe — and easy —
and foolproof. Take the brakes off. Tear out the gyro-
scopes. Pass a law making it a felony to fly with a para-
chute, and you will see the way the people will fight to
buy our latest model.”

“You are the president of the company,” finally an-
swered the secretary. “You have a right to dictate the
policies of the concern but I am going to disagree with
you. Men want to be safe in the air. It is the feeling
of safety that has made the great development in air
traffic a possibility. We cannot go back to the old days
of uncertainty and daily deaths. I agree that flying has
become less spectacular, but it has become more attrac-
tive because it has become safer. You can talk all you
want to, but you like to be safe in the air. You, yourself,
would openly blame anyone for flying without the proper
precautions.”

“I bet you a hundred that I would not,” said the
president.

“I will cover that bet. Your daughter is up in the air
now with a young man. They are in an old plane with-
out gyroscope or parachute. They have none of the
modern appliances ; not even a radio. I begged her not
to go in that old model out of the museum ; I wanted her
to take one of the new planes out of stock ; but she said
that she and the young man wanted to get a thrill out
of flying like the young folks used to. Now what is your
reaction to that?”

“Who was the young fool that made her do such an
asinine thing? Do I know him? How long have they
been gone ? The hundred ? Well, it’s my own daughter,
man, and that makes a difference. She is in danger.
Take your cursed hundred. I would give her a million
for the right to spank her this minute. Did you say
you knew the man?”

“Certainly. He is one of our inventors.”

“Tell him to see me as soon as he gets back.”

524

F OR four hours James De Loach sat in his pri-
vate office, eating his heart out with anxiety
and dread for his daughter’s safety. Then his pri-
vate secretary announced a caller, Mr. Hill. The
name was unfamiliar and De Loach asked brusquely
whether there had been an appointment. He was
told that the man was one of the inventors at-
tached to Aviation Consolidated and was calling
at the request of the president of the company.

“Show him in,” said the great man, and there
was a stern tone to his voice that boded no good
to the young man.

With an odd uwisting motion, the large piece
of metal made its %vay into space.

525

526

AMAZING STORIES QUARTERLY

“Sit down,” he commanded, “and answer my ques-
tions. How long have you been going with my daugh-
ter? Who said you could do it? What did you go plan-
ing with her for? Why use a foolish old plane? Did
you realize that you both might have been killed? How
do you think it would look to have my daughter die in a
plane twenty years old ? Answer me ! Keep your mouth
shut! You are fired. Dammit!! What have you to
say for yourself?”

“No man talks that way to me, Sir. I am leaving.”
“No, you are going to stay. What made you do it?
I was wild with anxiety. She is my only daughter.
Mad as a March hare, but, dammit! I love her. Tell
me the story.”

“Not much of a story, Mr. De Loach,” was the answer.
*‘I met Dorothy at a dance. We had mutual interests.
She learned that I had some ideas in regard to the air
and the future of flying, and she was interested. We
wanted to be alone and talk over matters, so she went
out riding with me. We took an old plane, because that
is the only kind I can afford to own. That is all.”

“But she has a dozen new models of her own.”

“Yes, Sir, but she wanted to go with me.”

“So, you have ideas about the future of flying?”
“Yes, but at present they are visionary. They are dis-
couraged by the Head of the Department.”

“Why?”

“He says they will not do because they are not safe.”
President De Loach called in his private secretary
and gave him a rapid order:

“Send in two club sandwiches, and a large pot of
coffee. Leave word that I have gone home for the rest
of the day. You can have the day off. Now then, Mr.
Hill, start in and tell me about these dangerous ideas of
yours, that will make flying difficult and even a deadly
sport.”

“It is interplanetary stuff, Mr. De Loach.”

“All right. I don’t care what it is, so long as I can
get a kick out of it. If it thrills me, it will satisfy the
people, and if they are satisfied, they will buy the ma-
chines. Go on!”

“It is this way. People have gone everywhere they
wanted on this earth. They have gone over the poles
and around the equator. It is a common thing to go
across the Atlantic. When travel becomes commonplace,
it loses its interest. It is just as easy to go across the
United States in the air as it used to be to go from New
York to Boston on a train, or from New York to Buffalo
in an automobile. I figure that folks are tired of travel-
ing around on the earth. They have been everywhere
and there are no new sights for them to see; nothing
novel for them to experience. They are just bored with
air travel as it is today. They are not buying planes,
because there is no thrill. A friend of mine told me
that he had more real pleasure in walking to Phila-
delphia than he had in flying around the world, because
he found that he really had something to brag about
and the newspapers said it was real news. So I have
been working on interplanetary flying — and it is not
really flying, either.”

“I like your line of talk,” sighed De Loach, “but this
interplanetary stuff so far has just ended in talk. Not
a single really sensible invention has been proposed to
make it possible.”

“That is because they cannot think in new terms.
When they start on interplanetary inventions, they sim-
ply reduplicate their old ideas about flying in the earth’s
atmosphere. Now, my idea is that the trick will never
be done with a hollow steel sphere or a cigar-shaped
carrier, — a heavier-than-air ship, or any of the proposed
forms of interspace flying machine. In the first place,
all these inventors feel that they have to either go in a
straight line or in a circle, but always under the com-

plete control of the pilot. For example, they visualize
a ship starting out for the moon. Halfway there the
pilot changes his mind and determines to go to Venus.
He simply changes his direction the minute he changes
his mind.”

“Well, what is the harm in that?”

“No harm, only it cannot be done. It never will be
done that way.”

“Then you know how it will be done?” and there was
a degree of sarcasm in the president’s voice ?

“No. I am not sure that I do, but I have my ideas.
Years ago when men were learning to fly, what did they
do ? They studied the birds. The Wright brothers spent
a long time in trying to see how the birds did it. All of
our efforts were directed toward duplicating their
cleverness in the air. Now, why not do the same thing
in thinking of interplanetary flying? No birds there.
No use of going to the moon as a bird would, because a
bird does not go there. Then what? Why not study
the things that are flying in those billions of miles of
space? What are they? Planets and comets and satel-
lites and asteroids. That is what we have to do. See
what makes them move; then go through space as
they do.”

“You have one idea there, my boy. .Just one idea.
You add a few more to it, and you will amount to
something.”

“I have some more to add to that first one. These
things that move in the sky move in three ways, don’t
they?”

“Something like that.”

“Take the earth. It revolves on its axis; second, it
revolves around the sun ; third, there is a suspicion that
the sun and the earth and all the sun’s planets are mov-
ing on through space. That is one idea ; another is that
while all the moving bodies finally come back to their
starting point, none of the orbits are perfect circles. It
takes some of the comets many years to complete their
orbit. The astronomers say that these orbits are egg-
shaped, or something like that; at least they are not
round. That is another idea. Now, here is one more.
The physicists state that a body, once started in a cer-
tain course, is apt to continue in that course, and, to be
sure, all the bodies are mutually inter-affected by
gravitation.”

“That is all interesting, but it does not tell me how
you are going to go ahead,” ventured the president.

“My thought is to make a piece of metal and shoot it
into space. Plan beforehand just what its orbit will be.
It goes into space, spins around and comes back, so
timed that it will fall into some soft spot on the earth —
some place like the Sahara or the Atlantic Ocean. If
w r e can do that and send that piece of metal around the
moon, then we can go further and try other orbits.”

The great man yawned.

“You are one ‘heluva’ inventor. You are a dreamer.
You stay away from my daughter. I want real men to
be interested in her. You know as well as I do that your
plan is absolutely impracticable. You say this piece
of metal is to be fired into space ? Suppose it is ? It is
going to keep on going, isn’t it? The Germans had a
big Bertha during the late war that threw a shell
seventy-five miles. The shell kept on going till it
dropped, didn’t it? It didn’t turn around and come back
again. You shoot a revolver, or a rifle, or throw a stone,
and it keeps on and doesn’t return. So would this piece
of metal. We could easily shoot a piece like that outside
of the earth’s atmosphere, but it would just keep on till
it was captured by some planet. You go back and bake
your brains some more, and in the meantime, stay
away from my daughter.”

“But there is one thing that you could throw or shoot
that would come back.”

521

BOOMERANG1NG ’ROUND THE MOON

“What is it?”

“A boomerang,” said the inventor.

“And now I know your brains -are soft.”

“They may be, but there is an idea there. A boom-
erang comes back to the person who throws it. It may
strike the object aimed at and return to the sender.”

“A boomerang? Just what is a boomerang, anyway?”

“It was a weapon invented by the savages of Aus-
tralia. Since I became interested in it, I looked up the
history of it as a weapon. It seems that the armies of
ancient Egypt were armed with it. They are made in
the shape of a sickle, curved at an angle of ninety
degrees more or less. The thickness is one-sixth of the
breadth, and the breadth is one-twelfth of the length.
The length varies from six inches to three feet. The
wood is rounded on one surface and flat on the other.
It is held vertically, the concave side forward, and
thrown in a line parallel to the surface of the ground.
When thrown, it is rotated with as much force as pos-
sible. It travels straight for thirty yards or more and
then turns over on its flat side and rises in the air to
the left. It now follows a sort of a circle, with a
diameter of about fifty yards, and returns to the exact
spot from which it was thrown.

“I found in studying the subject that exhibitions of
throwing these objects were often a feature of vaude-
ville performances some years ago, but there has been
no vaudeville for many years; not since television
became so popular. Yet I believe that we could find
someone who knows how to throw a boomerang, and
then it would be easy to invent a machine that would
duplicate the effort of the human hand. We can meas-
ure the exact force necessary to throw one of a certain
weight a certain distance, and then a very simple arith-
metical problem will give us the force required to send
one around the moon.”

The young man paused. The older man became irri-
tated, but said :

“Go on talking. It’s all nonsense, but keep on.”

“Then, we can build a boomerang out of aluminum.
In its hollow cavity will be a number of rooms for stor-
age of provisions, oxygen, bedrooms, and everything
that would be necessary to make life comfortable. Thick
windows of glass would afford opportunity to see the
celestial scenery. In fact, the equipment would be in
every way similar to the modern airship, with the excep-
tion of additional precautions necessary for the cold
and the absence of atmosphere.

“I believe that the initial force would have to be sup-
plied by a form of projectile power outside the ship,
but in addition, I feel that we could add a tube at one
end of the ship through which we could use a propulsive
power of the recently discovered atomic energy. The
power obtained from a minute amount of this new
source of energy is so great that there would be no
trouble in storing sufficient energy to make many thou-
sands of miles more than would be necessary to go
around the moon.

“You see, the important thing is the spin of the
boomerang. So long as it spins, it goes forward. We
shall have to determine the power necessary so that it
will travel forward the required number of times before
it begins its upward curve to the left. We shall also
have to figure the pull of the earth and of the moon.
The power that it is sent forward with has to be suf-
ficient to overcome the gravitation of both spheres.
That is simply a question in mathematics.

“But in its flight this boomerang will closely imitate
the course of a planet. It will revolve on its axis and
wilLalso revolve on a definite orbit. In the course of
time it will return to the starting point. I believe that

the best way to start the experiment is to ” But he

was interrupted by De Loach, who said calmly:

"The best way to begin is to make a small one that
we can experiment with. After that the only problem
that we shall have is to enlarge everything. I think
that the thing to do is to begin at once. I will put ttie
entire constructive proposition up to our chief engineer.
I want you to help us all you can. I think that this
idea of yours is the biggest thing that has ever come
into the brain of an aerial inventor. You can name your
own salary from now on. Suppose I call up Smithson
and get things started ?”

S MITHSON, the Chief Engineer of the Aviation Con-
solidated, was at once sent for. He was just leaving
the office to keep an appointment with Dorothy De
Loach, for he also was in love with that young lady
and felt that his very responsible position in the com-
pany gave him the right to expect far more than his
minor rivals, like Hill. He was mad at having to break
the engagement. He was more mad when he found
that Hill was the direct cause of his having to do so.
But he was too afraid of the energetic president of the
company to express his thought. He listened carefully
to the proposition, acknowledged that it was all new to
him but that he would study over it and see what could
be done. De Loach ordered him to construct a model
boomerplane of about twelve feet in length.

At once the entire inventive force of the company was
at work, determining the various details that would be
needed in a boomerplane large enough to make the trip
around the moon and back to the earth. Supplies, oxy-
gen, motive power, scientific instruments, in fact, every
possible detail, were thoroughly considered. Men worked
day and night, but at the same time, the greatest secrecy
was kept. And while every man knew some part of the
plans, no one except Smithson had the complete set of
blueprints and specifications.

It did not take long to make the twelve-foot model.
When it was tried out on the secret testing grounds, it
made a beautiful flight of one mile. This flight was an
exact duplication of the flight of a boomerang thrown
by hand. Pleased with this first performance, De
Loach ordered one made twenty-four feet long. This
one made as satisfactory trial flights. It was now felt
that with the aid of the mathematicians and astron-
omers a boomerplane could be constructed large enough
to make the circuit of the moon. A power plant was
erected in an Arizona desert and the work of construct-
ing the final machine was begun. Arrangements were
made for an initial explosion of atomic energy in back
of the plane that would throw it the first two hundred
miles. After that it would be carried onward by its
own power.

During this period of construction the main actors
concerned reacted in different ways to the excitement.
De Loach was restless! Thrilled as he was with the
thought that his power and wealth might be the means
of introducing an entirely new factor into the problem
of interplanetary travel, he could not bear to face the
thought of failure; yet, that thought was constantly
with him. Hill, the man that was responsible for the
whole affair, had left all the engineering details to
Smithson and had occupied himself entirely with the
furnishing of the many rooms inside the body of the
boomerplane. Smithson, who alone was responsible for
the proper transforming of the blueprint details into
aluminum, passed long hours and days without sleep.
Dorothy De Loach also had many bad nights, and she
had sufficient cause for these.

For Hill, the young inventor, had told her and her
father that he had determined to make the first trip
around the moon in the new machine. He felt that it
would be useless to send an empty machine around on
this spectacular trip. Some scientist should be in the

528 AMAZING STORIES QUARTERLY

machine to make observations and tell the whole story
on the return to the earth. He did not feel that it would
be right to ask anyone else to assume this danger; so
he decided to go himself. De Loach hated to see him
go, yet he felt that he could not order him to stay. Dor-
othy cried and cried and that was all the good that it
did. Smithson developed more insomnia, but kept on
working. He openly praised Hill for his determination
to take the dangerous trip. In fact, he had known that
the youngster had determined to make the first flight
many weeks before — he had known it before the final
model was begun.

Finally, the completed boomerplane lay on the scaf-
folding in the Arizona desert. It was completely stocked.
Hill had really overdone the matter of supplies. Store
room after store room was filled with the necessities
of life, sufficient to last several years. He explained to
Dorothy that these would be necessary if their calcula-
tions went wrong and the boomerplane remained out in
space instead of returning to the Arizona desert. This
simply made Dorothy feel worse than before.

T HE programme called for the final departure of the
enormous mass of metal at six A.M. on the first of
June. A few dozen scientists had been invited to be
present. On the evening of the thirty-first of May,
Hill called on Dorothy De Loach. The call was short
and anything but sweet. She asked him to abandon his
plan of making the first trip in the boomerplane.

“It is all nonsense,” she explained, “for either it will
come back to the starting point or it will not. If it does,
why then we know it will be safe to make a second trip ;
and if it doesn’t come back, we know that it would have
been death to make the first trip. So you stay right here.”
Hill refused. He explained as best he could that he
loved her but that it w r as a question of professional pride
to have confidence enough in his own invention to trust
his life to it. The young lady heard him in silence to
the end, and then simply said that she was through with
him and the quicker he left, the more time she would
have with a sensible man, who, of course, was none
other than the Chief Engineer.

That started a real quarrel but a very short one. The
girl handed Bill his hat and refused absolutely even to
get up in time to see him start on his interplanetary
journey. She was not very nice to Smithson the rest of
the evening, but at least she allowed him to stay with
her. The next morning she kept her promise and was
conspicuously absent when the time came for the plane
to leave the earth.

De Loach made a short speech to the newspaper
reporters and handed them a complete description of
the boomerplane and the idea back of it. Then Hill said
good-bye to everyone and entered the cabin door, which
he at once closed from the inside, and sealed. To Smith-
son was given the honor of pressing the button that
started the novel aircraft on its course. With a peculiar
whirring noise, the large piece of metal rose into the
sky, and, with an odd twisting motion, made its way
into space. Smithson wiped the sweat off his face and
asked De Loach to excuse him for the rest of the day.
The president of Aviation Consolidated w^ent back to
the ranch-house which he had leased for a temporary
home during the work in Arizona. Once there, he sent
for his daughter. She could not be found. But in her
room was a letter addressed to him. He read it as
quickly as he could,

“My dear Father:

“At the last moment I found that life without
Henry Hill was an utter impossibility. He insisted
on making this first trip and I felt that it was so
very dangerous that I could not let him go alone.

So, I am going to hide in the boomerplane and not
let Henry see me till it is too late to return. I hope,
for your sake, that we get back all right. See
Smithson at once. He knows something about the
boomerplane that he has hinted at to me. I love you.

“Your daughter, Dorothy.”

“Now, isn’t that just like a woman?” said De Loach,
swearing. “I thought Smithson looked peculiar this
morning. Well, we will see what he has to say for
himself.”

When the Chief Engineer entered the President’s
office an hour later he was handed the letter without a
word of explanation. The official read it and then
started to walk rapidly up and down the room.

“This is a horrible complication, Mr. De Loach. What-
ever put such a thought into your daughter’s head. She
is as good as dead. She will never come back— never!
Never ! ! And I am her murderer ! ! !”

“Nonsense,” said De Loach kindly. “No one will blame
you for her conduct. I knew that you were so jealous
of Hill that the last thing you would have done would
be to help her with such an escapade.”

“But you do not understand.”

“Well, tell me about it.”

The tortured man finally sat down and began his
explanation.

“You know that the final preparation of the plans and
blueprints was entrusted to my care. No one knew all
the details except myself. Hill had an idea, but when it
came to making that idea a mechanical possibility, he
left everything to me. I did not love him very much,
Mr. De Loach. Why should I? I could have won Dor-
othy had it not been for him. I really hated him, and
when I saw that his idea was mechanically possible and
that he was bound to become famous, I determined to
do everything that I could to destroy him. I had to do a
lot of study in regard to the boomerang, and I suddenly
found out something that everybody else had failed to
take into consideration at all. There were two kinds of
boomerangs. One cam -e back and the other did not.
One was called the return and the other the non-return,
or war boomerang. The war variety looked exactly like
the return kind, except the relation of the surfaces was
different. No one knew very much about this law except
myself. So, when I drew the plans, I made them for a
non-return type instead of a return. That means that
the boomerplane is just going to keep on going. The
more power Hill uses, the further it will go. He cannot
turn it around or influence its flight in any way. -I
wanted him completely discredited, but I wanted some-
thing more. I wanted him to disappear and stay dis-
appeared. I was sure that if he never came back, I
could some day persuade Dorothy to be my wfife. Now
he is hopelessly lost, and she is with him — and there is
nothing that we can do.”

The president of Aviation Consolidated looked at the
engineer in horror.

“You ought to be killed!” he wdiispered.

“I agree with you and I will attend to that detail
at once.”

A little later he shot himself.

H ILL had gone into the boomerplane and closed the
door. He looked at his watch, satv that it was
six A.M., and made himself comfortable in one of the
observation chairs. Soon he saw the earth beneath him
growing more and more indistinct. He was on his way.

Now that it was all over, and the machine was finally
made, and the work all done, the real experiment began ;
he had a peculiar sense of ease. He took out of his
pocket a letter from Smithson. The engineer had handed
,( Continued on page 574)

The Yriple R ay

By R, V. Hap pel

T HE Consolidated Press recently issued a small
obituary paragraph which no doubt carried
little significance to the majority of news-
paper readers who chanced to see and read it.
The wording as I remember was to the effect
that “Professor Lucius Raymond, who at one time gave
promise of being our greatest atomic scientist, passed
away at his home in Maine. After one brilliant coup.
Prof. Raymond apparently abandoned all research work
and became a recluse.”

It was actually worded in a nice way in order not to
give the impression that Lucius Raymond was an even-
tual failure, but such was the idea in the back of the
writer’s mind, as the delicate wording proves. It had,
indeed, been taken for granted that Prof. Raymond had
expended all his scientific reserves in his “one brilliant
coup” and was a burnt-out man thereafter.

This is not so. To dispell that illusion I am attempt-
ing to set forth here the real magnitude of Lucius
Raymond’s life work, which was never known nor
dreamt of by the reading or scientific public.

Lucius Raymond and I were the closest of friends
from college days until the very nSfeht of his death. I
was with him when he discovered the Twin Ray, and I
worked with him for months and years until by great
luck and fortunate (or unfortunate!) accident he dis-
covered the terrific Triple Ray.

Everyone has heard rumors about the Twin Ray,
which those who know commonly call “our priceless war
instrument.” Few, however, are aware that this alone
caused that vastly unexplainable retreat of the German
Army at the time it had Paris and victory within its
reach. The Twin Ray alone ended the conflict. An
extremely solemn conference, made up of a diplomat
representing each combatant land, was held in a neu-
tral European country. Before these men Prof. Ray-
mond demonstrated his Twin Ray.

But this is in no sense of the word a “War” story.
I merely use an illustration to show the effectiveness
of the Twin Ray. This conference had been called
because, to quote the leader of our forces, “so devastat-
ing a force could not be loosed even upon an enemy
nn:i; ri; mean; had been taken to secure his willing
rerrear and ■disbandment.”

Tire :;rderer:e had been called, of course, with the
:: irrrc-nrg the Teuton diplomat. I can easily
rent- bar stmt, acrid man who distinctly reminded
me :: a del: cat;.; sen dealer I have traded with for years.
H ; e i ar.d though an enemy, most

enragingl; pern ire hr? window of the council

?r : nr. is. Outside on the lawn

After a few pofitemri f no - articular importance,
Prof. Raymond turned Ms ray upon these effigies, and
:r. :re swift instant, sweet :'rg from left to right, an-
na dated every one with an efficiency both noiseless and

The German diplomat slowly pepped his eyes out (I
«as sitting across the room from him) and then said
A -d- -Got! in Himmel!”

A number cf similar experiments were staged with

metal as w r ell as whole sides of beef, the beef being used
to show the ray’s effect on flesh. One and all the sub-
jects vanished into a faint, disappearing cloud of dust.
The German and Austrian delegates finally left together
in a great hurry, and the next morning the retreat com-
menced.

And what was this thing that turned solids to gray
dust ? In pure fact it was absurdly simple, to a certain
point. It was, in fact, nothing more than the combina-
tion, in a single beam, of ultra-violet and infra-red
rays. One acted merely as the carrier of the other, the
violet ray insinuating itself within the atomic structure
of the object to be destroyed, while the infra-red was
carried “on its back.”

A strange property of the infra-red was then dis-
played. When injected so into the atomic being of an
object it at once nullified all cohesive power of the atom
nucleus and at the same time slowed down the speed of
the electrons which fill or rather lie within tiny orbits
about the nucleus. Immediately the structure collapsed
into inert atomic dust as minute as the motes in a sun-
beam. The result, you see, was much the same as would
follow if one were able to suddenly pull every nail out
of a frame house.

But this result, while it may have constituted a
“priceless war instrument,” was not all that Prof. Ray-
mond desired. He was eager to release, instead, the
very real and immense store of power in the atom’s
structure. He finally did so, and I fear found it not a
great deal unlike Pandora’s box.

Perhaps, though, it would be best to explain this
power of the atom before continuing further. First
consider the atom itself, which constitutes the material
of everything on earth. It consists of a center or
nucleus about which revolve or are distributed a number
of “satellites” like planets about a sun. The number
will increase from but one in the case of the lightest of
gases to ninety-two in the heaviest of metals. This
atom, you have been told over and over, is so small that
several million might be placed on the head of a pin,
and several hundred thousand would be undisturbing in
the corner of the eye. I do not know the exact figures,
as I have small flair for futile mathematics. However,
these orbital particles, small as they are, would, if they
should suddenly decide to travel in a straight line, cover
a distance of thirteen miles in one second.

If the power in the nucleus which holds them to their
places should be reversed and drive them apart with
this terrific impulse added to their own speed, their ex-
plosive force would be all but unbelievable. There can
be little doubt that, if all the atoms in the bowl of the
teaspoon with which one stirs his morning cup of coffee,
should suddenly straighten out, he and his neighbors
and that whole end of town would vanish in a glorious
sheet of flame. That, indeed, is the power of the atom.

T HE Twin Ray which “pulled the nails” out of the
atom was generated in a regulation medical X-Ray
tube. The X-Ray itself is of ultra-violet character. In
slowing a portion of them up by passing them through
a heavily leaded quartz prism, ( Continued on page 570)

529

Te rrors

/ N “ The Princess of Arelli” our well-known author was much concerned
with the televisophonic communication with the inhabitants (as he found
them) on the moon, and his hero’s trial flight across the void. In this sequel,
however, interstellar travel being an established fact, the story is concen-
trated in its entirety on our satellite, the moon . It is quite logical to assume
that since this is the closest body beyond the earth’s atmosphere, man will
naturally try to solve its mysteries during the first experimental stages of
interstellar travel, if and when that time comes. Until such time, it will be
impossible to say what might be found upon — or perhaps below — the cold
surface of the moon. As a writer of thrilling scientific fiction, this author
needs no further comment. We can, without any hesitation say, “ Terrors
of Arelli” is even better than its predecessor.

Illustrated by WESSO

N O INHABITANT of the planet Earth is
likely to have forgotten the major inci-
dents of the first successful voyage to the
Moon, known to her own people by the name
of Arelli, as our planet is called by them
Marelli. This was in the late summer of the Earth year
1938, corresponding to the Arellian tello, or year, 817 of
the 211th iltello (an iltello being a thousand years), and
followed by a few months the establishment of radio and
televisual communication between the two planets. The
names of all who were in the least connected with the
significant event have become household words on both
worlds. In chief comes Frederick X. Harding, the
astronomer and selenographer who spoke the first
word that carried across the void of a quarter of a
million miles; whose eyes were turned the first into
those of our fascinating celestial neighbor; whose
wealth and industry built the space ship Terraluna and
whose presence on her maiden voyage contributed so
largely to her success; who wooed Altara, the beautiful
and beloved Princess, and wedded her according to
the Arellian form, with his feet on the mountains of
Arequipa, Peru, and hers in her father’s kingdom.
Then comes that jovial and courageous young Irishman,
Larry Donelan, master aircraft builder, who made the
ship, navigated her safely across the uncharted and
pathless voids to her destination, and received his re-
ward in the hand and the love of the fair Sanna, inti-
mate and friend of the Princess.

Nor will any fail to recall the so nearly disastrous ad-
venture of the abduction of the Princess and Sanna
from the very midst of the nuptial festivities through
the jealous rage of the evil Ullo, aided by his friends, the
barbarians who resided in the craters that lay deep in
the nearly inaccessible fastnesses of the monster Doerfel
Mountains, not far from the crater Tycho, in the south
polar region of the Moon. Nor are the events ensu-
ing far down in the tunnels and cavern settlements
beneath the airless and waterless surface of Arelli
to be forgotten, where the people had dwelt since being
driven from the surface by the adverse conditions so

many thousands of years before that all count of them
had been lost in the mists of antiquity.

In these thousands of centuries Arelli had grown old.
The Hesperidian days of her youth were passed and
gone; middle age had come and gone, too, and old age
had overtaken her. The beauty of her virginity, which
had been when the gods themselves were still young,
had given place to a paler complexion and a dimmer eye,
and her enticing skin had been marked by the cracks
and pitmarks of old age. The pliant loveliness of her
body that had so rejoiced the young gods was become
stiff and ugly, and racked with the painful convulsions
of senility.

The gardens and the green fields had withered and
turned to barrenness. The zephyrs that had fanned
them had been sucked back into the vacuum of sur-
rounding space. Her seas had become lakes, then
stagnant marshes, and then had disappeared below.

Her multitudes had gradually left the desolate
stretches and gathered in the vast craters where there
was still air and water, and as these refuges, too, had
failed in their necessity, they began to hew out places
in the rocks of Arelli far below the surface, following
on the recessive steps of the elements. For thousands
of centuries the Arellians had sunk their dwellings
deeper and deeper into the rock until, in the 211th
thousand of years they were hundreds of miles below
the surface.

There they had found they could go no lower. Not
that the heat or the damp -was too great, or the rocks
too hard, or the means lacking to hew them out. None
of these things. It was that they had learned they
were not the only inhabitants of Arelli. The workers
had broken through one day into great open spaces
in the interior. They were the workmen whose heroic
statues stood in the amphitheater from which the ter-
restrials had been first conducted to the underground
settlements.

No one ever knew just what took place down there
the day the workmen broke through into the place of
the beasts, but the story would not be hard to construct.

530

of “ The Beast^Men of Ceres
“Tani of Ekkis,” etc.

<J Looking down, he soon understood the reason for the muffled scream ,

531

532

AMAZING STORIES QUARTERLY

A group of seven workers had been hewing out
places for the extension of the lower levels of the set-
tlements. They used the Arellian boring machines,
which could make many feet of finished tunnel in a
day. From the lowest level they were making a tunnel
downward another five miles to establish another level.
For hours they had noted the hollow sound given forth,
and they had wondered much, these heroes, what it
might signify. No doubt it was nothing but the reach-
ing into another of the frequent natural caverns, which
lessened their labors.

“Matto,” said a workman to his companion, looking
around to see that no one was near, and speaking low,
“I am sure I heard some strange sounds a while ago.
Did you' notice anything unusual?”

Matto shook his head. “I noticed nothing, Stello,
except that there was a screeching of the machine.
As soon as the erro is over we must give the word to
the machine tenders to go over the machine and see
what is the matter, or it may break down and delay
our work.”

“Perhaps you are right, Matto. It must be you are,
for what would there be down here but the machine
which could make such a screaming noise? And yet,
Matto” — Stello looked over his shoulder furtively and
saw that no other was near — “and yet, a machine has
no mind or will that Can take hold of the spirit of a
man and lay such a burden of fear upon it as there
was upon me when I heard the screaming. I am
afraid, Matto, my old friend. Afraid. You, Matto,
know that I am not a coward, but — now I am terribly
afraid. I feel as if something strange and terrible
were reaching out for me.”

Matto put a hand on the shoulder of the younger
Stello, and gave a short laugh that sounded hollow and
insincere in the gloom. “Nay, there is naught to fear,
Stello. What could there be? It is unpleasant down
here where the lights are confined to our working
lamps. It is hollow and damp, too. I don’t like it any
better than you. But there is nothing to fear. What
could there be to harm us?”

A gong sounded then, which announced that the
erro was over and it was time to leave their work.
The humming of the boring machine ceased abruptly,
and gathering up such things as they had with them,
the two men turned back to join their fellows and go
to their homes for the coming enna of rest.

“Say nothing of what I told you, Matto,” cau-
tioned Stello. “There is no need to frighten the others,
just because I am afraid of the noise of a piece of
machinery.”

Matto nodded acquiescence, and they went home to
their wives and children.

W HEN the enna was over and the next erro of
labor had come, Stello had his “morning” meal,
and prepared to return to his work below as soon as
Matto, who lived near by, should come past and pick
him up in his vehicle. A shout soon announcing Matto’s
arrival, Stello called his wife to him, told her he was
going, patted her arm, and smiled at his children, and
started out.

What strange thing is the human soul that it seems
to reach forward at times to things unarrived and un-
known? Do events of the lives of men wear a sinister
or a happy aura, that reaches us before the facts them-
selves, impressing upon us in advance the character of
the coming event?

One does not know. But then, why was it that on the
very threshold of his dwelling, Stello turned back to
touch his wife and children again, and say more words
of love to them, before he went out to Matto’s vehicle
and returned to work far below? One does not know

anything about it. The human spirit is taken by strange
fancies at times.

Matto had come early, and the two were on the
ground by the machine before the others.

“The machine is quiet enough now,” laughed Matto.
“Let us see if it will work as quietly as it rests.” He
turned the power that started the mass of metal, and
watched it attentively a moment, cocking his head to
listen for any sound of complaint from its parts. There
was none. He and Stello looked it over and made sure
it had been tended for the erro’s run.

The two neighbors stood a moment in silence, then
gave each other a shame-faced glance. They knew they
had both been listening, listening, not to the machine’s
metal voice, but in spite of themselves listening toward
the place ahead of the machine. There was a light
sound behind them, and they both jumped nervously.
But it was only their companions, who had come up so
quietly that they had not heard them in their pre-
occupation.

They went at their work. As the machine bit into
the rock ahead, took the mouthfuls into its insides, and
spewed it out behind, reduced to one-tenth of its former
bulk, it was piled along the edges of the excavation to
be out of the way until the work cars should come
along later and dispose of it.

The successive bites of the machine gave off a more
and more hollow sound, as it edged its way along into
the space of the rock it had eaten and cast off. But
even the nervous Stello, unconsciously listening, listen-
ing, from time to time, could not find any complaint.
Except for the slight sound of the machine and its
hollow gnawing ahead, it was silent enough for the
most sensitive of them. There was nothing to terrify
a child.

About the middle of the erro the crash came. The
thinning wall before them suddenly fell into the nat-
ural cavern ahead, and for a space a man could pass
through erect, for the way was clear. A dim, ghostly
glow came through to them, as they went to stand in
the entrance the machine had made. By its light they
could see the cavern reaching ahead for what seemed
miles, but they could not see the ceiling. The floor
of the place was rugged. Rocky ridges extended across
before them, so they could neither see anything of
what lay on the bottom beyond.

When their eyes had become a little used to the
weird gloom they could see well enough. So they set
down their hand lights in the opening and made their
way slowly and cautiously. Matto went ahead, and
in spite of himself he could not entirely forget Stello’s
mysterious panic. He proceeded cautiously. In a
minute he called back to Stello to shut off the machine,
saying they would not need it for a while, and Stello
turned back to do so. When he got back to the entrance
his fellows had disappeared beyond one of the transverse
ridges. He could hear the sound of their voices and
their footsteps, but the cavern gave it back to him so
hollowly that he could not tell what way it came. He
stood still a moment at the entrance, listening. Had
they gone around the point at the right? In that case
he must pass to the right of a huge pile that closed the
way. Or had they gone behind the jutting cape of
rock at the left? In that case he must pass to the left
of the huge pile. Or, finally, had they climbed directly
over the ridge straight ahead ? That would mean taking
still another direction to reach them.

As he puzzled over the matter, he heard Matto’s
voice again, and he thought there was a note of alarm
in it, although it was calm enough. Then there was a
blood-curdling scream from one of the others, accom-
panied by another sound he could not name, except
that it was not human. Followed at once a bedlam

THE TERRORS OF ARELLI

533

of rushing sounds — whether of wings or feet Stello
could not say — mingled with animal snarls, and human
cries of fright, pain and despair.

Then, booming through the mad melee of sounds,
came to him, clear and calm, the voice of Matto.

“Stello! You must go back into the tunnel quick,
and blow up the entrance. Do you hear?”

“Aye, Matto, old pal. What is the matter?”

“Quick, Stello! Quick! Blow it up and save” —
Matto’s voice jarred and broke, like the voice of a
man who is trying to speak while struggling violently.
It ceased a moment, then came again, muffled and
hardly discernible. “Blow it! Blow it quick, Stello!
Tell them to come down and make it secure. Quick!
The place — is filled — with — — ”

There was a gasp and then no more, but Stello was
already dashing to obey. He snatched his pocket
radio. There was no need to wait for any “connec-
tion.” His message would register automatically, and
repeat his message to the operators who were always
listening.

While speaking, he was making his way to the place
where the bombs were stored that they had to use at
times in their work. He seized one in his idle hand
and started forward, still speaking his message. Then
he turned back, and, his message given, dropped his
radio and caught up two or three other bombs. One
might not do the work well enough. The beasts must
not be allowed to escape and destroy the people. He
knew well enough what was the meaning of Matto’s
words “blow it up and save.” In his last seconds Matto
was thinking, not of saving himself, but of protecting
the people.

In the frantic moments Stello, too, thought of his
sweet wife and babes. Well, he, Stello, need not die.
He was in the tunnel; the mouth of it was between
him and — that which was in the great cavern ahead;
he need only throw his bombs to seal the mouth, then
hide himself quickly behind the machine until the
debris was settled down again, and make his way home.
His companions were doubtless all dead. He could not
help them. Matto’s voice had shown that he was al-
ready struggling and being overcome by the — by what-
ever had held him in its grasp.

But Matto he had played with in infancy, fought
with in youth; Matto and he had shared everything —
always; Matto the wise, had always counseled him;
Matto the strong had always helped and stood by him.

A groan came up from the depths of Stello’s soul.
“Matto! Ah, Matto!”

I T was over. Quietly he made sure of his bombs,
stepped through the opening into the cavern of
terror, picked the right place for his throw, and flung
one of his bombs into the mouth of the tunnel behind
him.

“Matto! Ah, Matto!”

Calmly and steadily, he watched the mountains of
falling rock and debris crash down between him and
his world.

That is what might have happened; that is what
probably did. At least Stello’s message had said he
was in the tunnel and his fellows were being attacked
in the cavern. It was clear he was not then in urgent
danger, and clear that he might have cast his bomb
as well from one side as from the other side of the
entrance.

Thus had passed the heroes whose statues stood
above. And what complaint had they? They lived in
stone, even if their stone arms and bodies could not
feel the embraces of their wives and children. If they
complained in the place they had gone, it was not known.
Man dies, and if he has done some great thing, his

statue may sometimes be set up in stone or bronze.
The next generation or two boast of his exploit as if
it had been their own; the next tells the thing a little
vaguely; and the next says petulantly, “Who were
these, and why do they stand in stone here in the
way?” Then the statues come down and there is an
end of the transaction. And what do the dead care?

They had saved the people from the beasts, but —
never mind; that was long ago.

At times the people of the lowest levels had heard
strange sounds in the silent hours of the ennas. It
had come to be recognized that these errant sounds
were from the maws of the beasts, and it was plain
that the beasts were never far away, even though con-
fined safely below. There had been talk of abandoning
the lower levels and filling up the tunnels leading to
them. But the low'er levels had been the homes of
their citizens for so long, and they disliked to leave
their homes. There was time enough when the danger
became apparent. Perhaps it never would.

In point of chronology the reign of terror began
with vague rumors and whisperings soon after the
landing of the Terraluna and the ensuing festivities
in celebration of the wedding of Harding and the
Princess, and it was not a great while after the work
of reconditioning the Crater of Copernicus on the sur-
face had been resumed, when the workers were snatched
from their labors and the bridegrooms torn sternly
from the arms of their brides, and thrust into as mad
a maelstrom of blood and stark horror as a man could
survive and retain a fraction of his reason.

It will be remembered that the kindly Altona, king
of the Arellian realm, had promised to place their
records at the disposal of Harding. Immediately, then,
after the Arellians who had assembled to witness the
festivities had dispersed to their homes, centering be-
neath various craters of Arelli, the king had been
reminded of his promise anent the records, and some
preparations were made to begin with it. In this he
was most intelligently and industriously aided by Prin-
cess Altara, Harding and Sanna Donelan, as well as,
from time to time as needed, by the most learned of
the translators of the ancient languages and picture
records. The language, as inevitable from the passage
of so many thousands of years, had greatly altered, as
exemplified in our own domain by the wide divergence
between our modern languages and the hieroglyphical
inscriptions of the Egyptians, and the cunieform writ-
ings invented by the Akkadians of Mesopotamia, which
descended to the Babylonians and Assyrians.

By fortunate chance, the white-haired centenarian,
Mastono, at the ripe age of 163 years, interested by
the ambitious plans of King Altona to bring the people
back to live in the sunlight, had left his ancestral home
in the old capital beneath the crater Ylisae, on the side
invisible to Earth, and come with all his vast learning
and experience to live in Copernicus, the present cap-
ital of Arelli and the center of the new activities..
When he learned of the desire of the visitors to exam-
ine the ancient records of the realm, he returned at
once to Ylisae to bring from the most ancient reposi-
tories of that crater certain records he had encoun-
tered while yet a young man.

The Arellians employed formerly two methods of
recording historical events. One was what might be
termed the regular and orderly writing of history.
This consisted of the dictation by official historians of
accounts of important passing events into a receiver
which impressed them upon, or, more correctly speak-
ing, merged them into the molecular structure of, the
fine metal wire or tape which passed through the ma-
chine under the influence of an electric field, in some-
thing the same manner only recently discovered on

I

534

AMAZING STORIES QUARTERLY

earth. This method had been in use by the Arellians
ever since they began to record their history, and the
record thus made, so long as it was protected from
change in the electric field, was practically eternal —
if not in its original, at least by duplications, which
were easily made. This method, remarkably enough,
recorded conjunctively not only the voice and the re-
lated diagrammatic illustrations, but as well the mov-
ing panorama of events as they actually took place —
in so far, of course, as it was feasible to photograph
them.

The other supplementary method, more primitive and
disorderly, and probably much more ancient, consisted
in recording passing events by pictures or drawings
and commendatory writings upon the walls of the num-
berless caverns and tunnels constituting the sub-
Arellian territory and dwellings. The latter, in spite
of its incompleteness and lack of cohesion, yet proceeded
by a rough chronology, the oldest recordings being
found in the excavations first made as the people began
to take to sub-surface living, and coming more and
more toward the present as the excavations proceeded
downward through the hundreds of miles occupied in
our time by the Arellians as settlements, horticultural
areas, for manufacturing and other plants of numer-
ous kinds, for storage, and the like. These records,
also, were so made and protected that they did not
suffer from the lapse of the ages.

Keen interest of the two earth men had been
aroused, it will be remembered, by the discovery among
the pictures and writings on one of the ancient caverns
of undoubted references to the now lost continent of
Atlantis — “the paradise of Poseidon,” as it has been
called by one of our writers.

At the close, therefore, of the second erro following
the saving of the Princess and Sanna from the clutches
of the sinister Ullo and his barbarian henchmen, Hard-
ing brought up the subject of the records, and it was
agreed that the investigation should begin when the
coming enna was over and the next erro was come.

F ROM the close association of Arelli with earth, it
has resulted that her calendar somewhat resembles
our own. The tello, or year, is the same as ours, since
Arelli accompanies earth on her annual ellipse. There
is no term for century, but a thousand years is called
an iltello. The tello contains thirteen nomas, or months,
correspondent to the coincidental revolution of the
plant Arelli about earth and her rotation on her own
axis, resulting in the same hemisphere being always
turned toward us. One half of each noma, then, is con-
tinuous sunlight, and the other half continuous night.
The noma is divided into 28 moras, corresponding with
our days, or the observed rotation of earth on her
axis. The moras are again divided into periods of
activity or labor, called erros, and periods of rest and
slumber, known as ennas. Formerly these ennas and
erros had consisted of fourteen hours each, but with
the advent of surface labor connected with the King’s
new enterprises, it came rather logically, on a sort of
daylight saving plan, that the work periods were longer
during the sunlight and the seasons of rest shorter,
and the reverse during the long night-times. The erros
of the sunlight period were of fourteen hours and the
ennas of ten, while during the night period the erros
were shortened to ten hours and the ennas increased to
fourteen.

At the moment, then, the erro was over and the
royal household had gathered in the informal family
room where they were accustomed to assemble for their
“evenings” together. The party consisted of the King,
of Harding and Princess Altara, and of Larry Donelan
and fascinating little Arellian Sanna.

The radio and televisual instruments had been con-
nected up, and the daily visit had been made with Billy
and Mercedes Upton and their selenographer compan-
ion, Professor Merriam, in the Harding Observatory at
Arequipa, Peru. The current events of Earth and
Arelli had been exchanged. Professor Merriam had be-
come greatly excited about the discoveries concerning
Atlantis, and had impatiently demanded that they be
followed up at once. Merriam had spent his few leisure
hours for some years in studying about the “Lost Con-
tinent.” He had calculated its civilization and history.
He believed he knew its precise size and location, the
day, and almost the hour, when it took its fatal plunge
beneath the waters of the Atlantic, and was almost
childishly eager to supplement — or perhaps only to
verify — his own findings.

It had been necessary, therefore, for Harding to
promise solemnly, before the instruments were dis-
connected for the “evening,” that he would set about
the matter as soon as the enna was over and the erro
arrived.

On what we may comfortably call the next “morning,”
Harding and three of the learned translators, loaned
him by the King, met at the airlocks leading from
the royal residence into the Crater Copernicus. They
walked slowly (for Lano was old) across the eastern
side of the newly planted green of the crater’s floor,
skirted the recently created “Lake Altara,” and en-
tered through the airlocks and communication tunnel
the vast underground distribution amphitheater, where
Harding had been before.

Eagerly Harding led the way to the place in the
northern wall, where were the pictures and writings
relating to Atlantis, pointed out the drawing of At-
lantis, nearest the floor of the cavern, and asked for
a translation of the several lines of inscription under-
neath it. Lano pushed his long white hair back from
his brow, gave his robe a twist, and brought his old
eyes close to the writing, which was not large. He
studied it a while.

“The top line reads,” he began, and broke off sharply.
“Why, I do not understand how this can be.” There
was a sort of indignant reproach in his tone. “This
is a very recent writing — much more recent than the
time of the making of this cavern. Can it be someone
is imposing upon me?” He glared suspiciously at Staro
and Araso. “The year of the sinking of the land that
is shown here is given as the 706th tello of the 207th
iltello, and as the present year is 817 of the 211th
iltello, or the 210,817th year of our recorded history,
that would be only 4,111 years ago. I cannot under-
stand this.”

It was rather as if old Lano was set down by the
indecent presumption on the part of things of so
infantile an age as only 4,111 years, in associating
themselves with the vastly greater respectability and
validity of the tens and scores of thousands; as if a
babe were to invade a class in astro-physics.

Araso cleared his throat respectfully. “It may be
that this cavern is of a later making than the other
distribution caverns of Copernicus, of which there are
several.”

“Yes, that would explain it,” agreed Harding, with
a nod. “I don’t suppose they were all made at the same
time, and this may be the last one made — or one of
the last ones.”

“That is reasonable,” supported Araso quietly. “It
may have been cut out as a more convenient passage
than the prior ways of going down to the settlements
nearest under it.”

“Or it might be, too,” joined in Staro, who had not
spoken before, “that the walls were not all covered at
first, and these writings were added at a later date.”

THE TERRORS OF ARELLI

535

“Yes, yes, of course that may be. Many things may
be,” complained old Lano, still a little resentfully. “But
our friend of Marelli is not interested in hearing you
young fellows rattle your heads. He wants to know
what the writing means. So if you will please to keep
silent a while!” He turned to Harding. “Whatever
the reason, this is a very recent writing — only 4,111
years old, as you see — or rather, the sinking of the
land it shows was that long ago. This was probably
written about the same time. As I was about to say” —
he glared at the younger Araso and Staro, whose eyes
fell — “the first line reads, ‘This is a land of Marelli
that sank beneath the great waters the year before
this writing is made, which is the 707th year of the
207th iltello.’ Then the next line reads, ‘The land
contained great cities and must have had many millions
of people, and the disaster must be a very sad one
for our friends of Marelli.’ You see, Mr. Harding, the
observer in this case appears to have recorded only
the larger aspects of the matter. They would record
that a continent had disappeared, of course; and he
speaks, I see, of the cities, and of ships moving on the
waters; but he does not appear to have concerned
himself with details. The third line reads, ‘But not
all of the people died, for they went about much in
ships and those who were away in the ships were
saved, being perhaps several thousands.’ The fourth
line says, ‘When the people in the ships came back
where their land had been and saw that it had sunken
beneath the waves, they sailed away to the land at
the west.’ That is all of the waiting. It is not much.
But you see, this is not a history of Marelli, but of
our own world, and I suppose it was put down merely
as a passing reference to an event of some interest,
it being an unusual thing for a great land to sink into
the sea."

“I see, of course,” said Harding. “The land was
called by us, Atlantis. The sinking of it occurred
before our authentic history, and while there have been
traditions or reports of its existence, we could not say
whether it really existed or whether it was only a
myth or a fable. What do you make of the picture above
this?”

T HE picture above showed the west coast of Africa,
and the inscription merely said that the sunken
land had been to the west of there. Staro suggested
modestly that the regularly recorded histories of the
year might refer to the event, and said he would ex-
amine them.

The mural frescoes and writings on every side dealt
with more ancient times, and no other reference was
found, after some little looking about, to any events of
Marelli. As the examination of all the inscriptions
would have required years, it was decided to try one
of the other distribution amphitheaters, in the hope of
chancing on something further of interest to the men
of Marelli. They went back through the airlocks into
the crater to enter the next station, which was on the
south side of the crater’s floor. Staro left them there
and went to examine the records, as he had promised.

It will be thought that the examination of the records
covering a period of over 200,000 years might be a
herculean task; but this was not so. Staro merely
selected the section dealing with the 207th thousand
of years, and easily found the 707th year of that thou-
sand. Attached to the file for each year was an alpha-
betical index. So he had only to select the letter de-
sired — in this case “M” (or whatever Arellian letter
corresponded to the sound) for Marelli. He turned a
key and a switch, there ensued a whirring inside, and
a voice began to recite the subjects included under the
letter in question, with enough of the context to render

them intelligible. Hearing the name Marelli, he noted
the number opposite and referred to the corresponding
number in the main body of the records. Another
turn of a key and a switch, and the voice came to
him from the thousands of past years as clearly as
if speaking from his very side. These voices from the
dead past had always filled Staro with an eery feeling
he had never entirely overcome. In his boyhood he had
delighted to turn on the records of the ancient times,
looking at the procession of pictures and listening to
the voices, trying to supply the accompaniments of
feature, figure, disposition and surroundings of the
speakers — all, alas! departed ages before. One would
sound young and vibrant, and he thought it was a
pity that one had had to die. Another would seem to
possess a certain quality of experience and middle age ;
another quavered as if with great age. Some sounded
calm and content, some petulant, as if resenting the boy
awakening them from their age-long rest. Some were
casual, some stern. Some of the historians had been
women. In one such case her picture was flashed.
He had been surprised to find her young, comely and
smiling. She had touched his young fancy deeply, and
he had leaned eagerly forward, only to recoil, chilled
unpleasantly by the reflection that she had aged and
died thousands of years before his birth. It seemed
to the thoughtful lad so incredible, so tragic and ter-
rible, that all alike must cease to live; and withal so
mysterious and ghostly that after they had filled up
their little destiny and centuries before had crumbled
into dust, they could yet speak again at the mere turn
of a little switch.

“The planet Marelli,” the ghost voice began. “A
great catastrophe on the planet Marelli has been noted
by our observers. The entire continent known to us
as Essanto, to the west of the continent of Alparo
(Africa) has sunk beneath the waters, although the
sinking was not seen by us. This continent is known
to have reached an advanced stage of enlightenment,
according to the standards of Marelli, which are far
below our own. The people of Essanto, numbering
many millions, had great cities and public works.
After the disappearance of Essanto, our observers
watched the spot constantly for a long time. The peo-
ple of Essanto traveled much in ships to all lands of
Marelli, and in this way a great many were saved from
death. After a time the ships returned, one by one,
to the place where their home ports had been, until
at last a gathering of ships was seen sailing about the
place. After quite a long time, the entire fleet of ships
sailed away to the west to another land, where we can
only suppose it is their intention to establish a new
home for the remnant of their unfortunate people.
Intaxit. es anna Essanto sn’ Marelli.”

(The Arellian word is not translatable into our tongue,
but the sentence signifies a sorrowful apostrophe to the
distant “friends of Earth on account of Essanto.”)

This being the extent of the account, and finding no
more of interest to the inquiry, Staro readjusted and
relocked the record cabinet as he had found it, and
returned to acquaint Harding with what he had heard.

The Princess Altara, the petite Sanna, and Larry
Donelan had joined the others in the crater.

There are six so-called entrance or distribution am-
phitheaters leading underground in different directions
from the floor level of the crater Copernicus. It should
be remembered that the floor of the crater itself is
many thousand feet below the rim, and that the coun-
try backing the rim, unlike our own volcanic craters,
slopes rather gradually from the top of the rim out-
ward, so that on passing from the floor of the crater
horizontally into the surrounding cliffs, one finds one-
self already several thousand feet underground.

536

AMAZING STORIES QUARTERLY

Of these distribution centers, four include tunnels
for travel from Copernicus to various other inhabited
craters, as well as for access to the local underground
dwellings and settlements; two are only local. Hard-
ing, accompanied now by the scientists, old Lano, Staro
and Araso (the centenarian Mastono not having re-
turned yet from Ylisae), and by the Princess Sanna,
and Larry, visited three of these before finding any-
thing of particular interest. It was only when they
were about to leave the fourth and give over the search
for the time being, that the sharp eyes of Sanna caught,
far above them, the word Marelli in large characters.
It seemed, from its position, to be a sort of heading
for several broad parallel columns of inscriptions ex-
tending down nearly to the floor. Interspersed among
the inscriptions were various illustrations on a rather
small scale. It seemed as if the recorder were pressed
for room or not greatly interested in his subject, for
the writing was too small for them to read from where
they stood except the single word Marelli, and it took
sharp eyes to make out even that.

At any rate, as the deciphering would obviously be
a matter of considerable time, and other matters were
intervening, it had to be postponed.

S EVERAL days passed during which the further
translation of the newly found records on the walls
of the amphitheater was of necessity postponed. The
King was kept busy with many things, not the least
being matters pertaining to the new surface works,
which he continually supervised in person. Old Lano
had been compelled to take a trip on some educational
tour to Tycho. Harding and Larry were happy look-
ing about here and there.

Larry and Sanna found material, built a raft, laugh-
ing gaily the while, and went for a cruise on Lake
Altara. The intelligent little Arellian girl asked a
multitude of questions about her husband’s home
planet. Larry described things on Earth the best he
could. One might go where one wished. There was
plenty of air to breathe — everywhere! All over the
Earth. Yes, and water. There were not only tha
great oceans, on which, of course, thousands of ships
went, but there were fresh water lakes so large that
one might sail out of sight of land. There were rivers
so large that there would be room on them for vast
fleets. Some of them were miles and miles wide.
There were buildings a hundred stories and more high,
and the air was filled with swarms of airplanes. Yes,
there were flowers, of course — great gardens and fields
of flowers and grass. In many places the flowers grew
wild — that is, they grew of their own accord without
seeding or tending. There were forests so large that
one might get lost in them and never be found if one
were not careful. There were myriads of fishes, big
and little, in the oceans, the lakes and the rivers, and
millions of birds that flew in the air. Some of them
sang very sweetly, too.

“How big is a fish, Larry, dear?”

“0, all sizes, from the size of my finger up to half
the size of the Terraluna.”

“0-o-oh! Larry! Honestly? And do the people not
fear them?”

“N-no, colleen, they were harmless as long as one kept
out of their way. The big ones — whales, they were
called — were only in the great oceans, and one went on
the oceans only in large ships. There were small
whalelike fish that ate people when they could catch
them — the sharks, but — well, one kept out of their way,
that was all. There was no trouble about that.”

“And, Larry” — she was breathless with the wonder
of it — “Larry, you said the — the birds sing? I do not
understand how that is. Do the birds of your country

— the Uni — it is hard for me, Larry. Tell me the
name again.”

He kissed her, called her a sweet thing, and told
her the United States, and she struggled with it until
she got it, watching Larry’s lips attentively.

“I am stupid, am I not, Larry, dear? I have never
seen a bird. Do the birds in the — United States — do
they sing in your own languages? You say many lan-
guages are on Marelli. Do the birds of each coun-
try ”

Larry laughed, kissed her again, and explained, and
then they laughed together, to think she had never
seen a bird and thought they sang in words, like peo-
ple. Then she told him, “Larry, I love you so. You
are so— you are a — a sweet thing.” She said she could
never live an erro or an enna away from him, and
then his face became so sober it frightened her. She
leaned close, with her arms about his neck and her
clear eyes searching his, a little puzzled. She shook
him gently. “Why do you look — so strange, Larry,
dear? I would rather go to — to the beasts with you,
than be anywhere without you — even for a single
enna.”

“Why, colleen,” he told her, “it is nothing to make
you look so sad. It is only that they are building now
a new ship at Altara Mountain — a bigger one than the
Terraluna. You know about it. Well, I do not think
they can finish it without me, so I must go over and
help get it done. That I must do soon. But I will
come back in a little while, dear one.”

Well — she puckered her lips adorably a moment —
well, Larry, the Terraluna would hold two. It had
held him and Freddie, and she was much smaller than
Freddie. She would go with him.

No, little one. The journey was not safe — that is,
not comfortable enough, yet. It meant being shut up
in a very small space and hardly being able to move
all the way. When the larger ship was done

But — she picked out that about the comfort with
unerring instinct. Larry had not caught himself
quickly enough for her sharp wits. But — it was as
safe for her as for him. She would go.

Larry shook his head. Not this trip. Maybe the
next one.

She stood up straight, her little face suddenly gone
tense and white. Then she would die — at once I
Without so much as a second’s hesitation, to Larry’s
surprise and horror, she had flung herself overboard
from their play raft into the lake, which was deep at
that point, thrown up her little hands, and sunk.

Like a flash he was after her, and soon managed to
seize her clothes, but she struggled and they tore away
in his hands, so that she sank again. Diving, he seized
her again, and brought her to the surface. But she
fought to tear herself out of his grasp. Larry was
not a strong swimmer, and it was with vast relief that
he lunged out and caught the edge of the raft with one
hand. He drew her upon it and held her fast. At last
she lay still under his caresses, looking up at the un-
mistakable trouble in his honest eyes. In a moment
her lips parted.

“I will go, Larry.”

In spite of himself, he laughed, and he snatched her
to him so fiercely tight that she let out a happy little
gasp.

“Yes, colleen, you will go.”

Larry made no mention to anyone of the events on
the raft, and if Sanna spoke of it to Altara they both
kept their counsel. Each time when night was upon
the Earth, connections were made with Altara Moun-
tain. Since the rather astonishing marriage of Billy
Upton and Mercedes, Mercedes had spent her time be-
tween the Mountain and her father’s place on Lake

THE TERRORS OF ARELLI

537

Titicaca. They were greatly excited, they and Pro-
fessor Merriam, about their coming trip to Arelli on
the new ship, which was being built under the long
distance supervision of Larry. The work was pro-
gressing rapidly, but it turned out, as Larry had ex-
pected, necessary for him to make the trip to Earth
for the completion and fitting.

There was no more argument about whether Sanna
was going. Larry had spoken to the Princess about it,
but she had been as decided as Sanna, and that had
settled the matter. Apparently the girls of Arelli be-
longed very much to their mates — and expected as
much in return.

“Sanna is right, Larry. You do not know the girls
of Arelli. You will kill her if you leave her behind.
They know men with a great certainty, and having
chosen there is no changing with them. If you are
both to die on the way she will die content; but if you
leave her, whether you die or live, it will kill her.
Sanna is right, Larry.’'

O NE evening, when they were all gathered together
in the royal quarters, the Captain of the Guard
was announced. His face wore a look of grim trouble.
He asked to see the King alone, and the King received
him in a small officelike place near by, where he heard
his story.

A party of workmen, he said, had been engaged in
boring new wells on the lowest level. A boring ma-
chine had suddenly broken through into a natural
cavern. The well had to be abandoned, of course, and
another started elsewhere. Through somebody’s neglect
the thirty-inch hole had been left open for a time, and
when at last a party of five men had been sent to
close it, only one of the party had returned.

The tale of the survivor had been a wild one. He
had been in such a pitiable plight from fear and panic
that he could hardly speak at all, and even then had
not seemed more than half aware of hi3 words. Con-
tinually he would break off, shaking as with the ague,
and peering here and there as if expecting some ter-
rible thing to leap upon him and destroy him.

The story they had finally got out of him was that
five men had gone to close the abandoned hole. Their
first step had been to let a man down into the hole in
a cage, taking metal bars, which he would put in place
in such a way as to keep the filling from falling
through into the cavern below. Then broken rock was
to be put in until the hole was filled to the top.

The hole being too small for the convenient use of
gravitors, a windlass had been rigged at the mouth of
the hole. One man would get into the cage, and an-
other would let him down to the desired position. While
this was being done, the other three went to prepare
the crushed rock for the fill, two running the crushing
machine, and one taking it in a sort of truck to the
hole. It was the truckman who was the survivor of
the party. The crushing machine was some distance
away, and out of sight of the hole.

When the truckman arrived with his first load the
windlass man was not in sight. He had waited a while,
thinking he had gone to attend to some little matter
and would return shortly. Impatient at last with wait-
ing, he had gone and looked down the hole. He was
surprised to find that the light, which had been car-
ried down in Che cage, was out, and called down to ask
what was wrong. There had been no reply. Then he
had noticed for the first time — it was strange he had
not seen it at the very first — that the cable had run
out its entire length into the hole. This was not rea-
sonable, because it was twice as long as necessary.
Alarmed at last, he had run and called the two men
from the rock-crushing machine.

One of these immediately proposed to go down the
cable to the cage to see what was wrong. Perhaps the
cage man had been hurt in some way. Perhaps the
windlass man had gone down to help him, and both had
got into some difficulty. He would soon find out. First
making sure the cable was securely attached at the
windlass, he had attached a clutch to the cable in
which were loops for the hands. Securing his light,
he had swung over into the hole and slid downward.
The two on the surface had watched the descending
light but a short distance when it, too, had suddenly
gone out. They had heard a muffled scream and then
silence.

Urged to go on with his story, the truckman had
trembled so violently that it had been some time before
he could speak again, and then hardly intelligibly. He
could not tell what had happened after that. His sole
remaining companion had lain down on the ground to
peer into the hole. After a bit, without looking up,
he had asked the truckman to bring him another light,
on a cord. He, the truckman, had turned away to
secure a light and was attaching it to the cord when
he had heard a sort of choking gasp from the man at
the hole. Turning quickly, he had been just in time to
see his feet disappearing into the hole. They were in
the grasp of something that looked like a tentacle, but
he had had only the briefest, fleeting glance at it.
Then the tentacle and feet had disappeared together,
and he had turned and fled screaming from the place.

That was the story the Captain of the Guard told
the King, who heard him in thoughtful silence.

“Did you hear the story yourself, Captain?” he
asked.

“O, yes, Your Majesty. When word of the matter
was brought me I sent for him at once and examined
him carefully.”

“And do you think his words are true?”

“Yes, I do, sir.”

The King nodded. “And the hole?”

“I went myself immediately with workmen and
closed it.”

The King looked a question, and the Captain shook
his head. “I saw nothing unusual, sir. I merely reamed
the hole to a larger size for some distance down and
dropped in a rock the size of the larger hole. It could
go only to where the hole narrowed, and I had them
fill on top of it. That is what the workmen should
have done in the first place. It was awkward of them
to go at it as they did, but I guess they did the best
they knew how, poor fellows.”

“Did you search the lower level, in case any of the
beasts had escaped and were still at large?”

The Guard Captain nodded. “Yes, I did search thor-
oughly, sir.”

“You dragged the storage reservoirs?”

The Captain started. “No, Your Majesty, I did not.
The truth is I did not think of that.”

“Better do it, Captain— just as a precaution. It may
not be necessary, but — better do it, anyway, when you
get time. We know nothing about these beasts. They
were probably water creatures originally, and when
the seas dried up they made their way below in some
way, and if the beasts have tentacles, it may be that
they are still water animals. No doubt there is water
down where they live. Better drag the reservoirs,
though I don’t suppose — Report to me personally,
Captain. You did right in coming direct to me.”

H ARDING had assumed, rather as a matter of
course, that he would return to Earth with Larry
Donelan, attend to some business matters, and return to
Arelli when the new ship should be completed, with
Billy and Mercedes Upton, and probably Professor

538

AMAZING STORIES QUARTERLY

Merriam. He did not relish leaving Altara, even for a
day ; he very much wanted to go ahead with the records
they had found; and for some reason he found it dif-
ficult even to approach the subject of going, in speak-
ing to the Princess. Larry had said nothing to him
about the matter, for reasons that are fairly obvious.
But Harding knew he must speak of it to his lady,
particularly as he realized each day that the trip
would have to be taken soon. So he introduced the
subject one day when he was alone with Altara.

“Sweetheart,” he began, “you know the people of
Altara Mountain can hardly complete the new chip
without Larry’s help. It will be necessary ”

He could not see her face, because her head was on
his shoulder, and her face was close to his neck. He
could feel the soft movement of her lips just touch-
ing him.

“Yes,” she said, “I know, my dear one. I am sorry
Larry has to go, but I suppose i't must be. He and
Sanna have spoken to me about their preparations.”

There was something about her tone that made him
take her face between his hands and look intently into
her eyes. She put his hands away in a moment, to
lay her head back where it had been before. He could
feel her lips again, but she said nothing.

“Of course, dear, you know I ought to attend to some
business matters at the Mountain. I have to — there
are some — you see ”

He could have sworn she was laughing, but when he
looked at her, her face was straight enough. He must
have been mistaken.

“Larry says you are terribly rich, dear. I am so
sorry. It must be a source of great annoyance to you.
But when Larry gets the new ship done, and he and
Sanna get back — 0, yes, and Billy and Mercedes! 0,
Freddie, I do want to see them so ! And that dear
Professor Merriam! My father is very fond of him.
Mercedes is so sweet, too. I can not wait to see them
all face to face. I am so eager to see your Marelli,
too, Freddie, my dear one. Well, I will have to wait
till the new ship is done and Larry and Sanna get
back. I am sorry, though, that Larry did not make
the Terraluna bigger, so we could go to Marelli now.”

There was silence a moment. Then, “Freddie, my
dear, I love you so. I could not live a single enna
without you. I shall die if you ever leave me for a-—
for a — what is that? — for a sec-ond.”

There it was again. Harding drew her golden form
close and kissed her. He decided to have a talk with
Larry first. Altara spoke as if everything were settled,
and he hardly knew what to say. These girls seem
to love a little harder than the girls of Marelli. Yes,
he would see Larry first.

Before long he and Larry did have a long quiet
talk — perhaps a little confidential as between man and
man anent woman and woman. The last words clear
the whole talk. “So what can we do, Mr. Harding?”
“Yes, Larry, I guess you’re right. What can we?”
, From all of which it is easily apparent that Larry
and his little Arellian were the sole passengers on the
Terraluna’s return voyage to Marelli, which was made
in twenty-four hours, and followed by a perfect landing
on Mountain Altara, between the observatory and the
hangars.

Of course it was quite unavoidable that others of
Marelli had come to know of the interesting events.
And since the daily press had acquired in 1938 even
more exceptional ways than in former decades for
finding out things they wished to know, it was inevi-
table, too, that they ferreted out the transaction entire.
They proceeded jointly and severally to Altara Moun-
tain, by automobile, airplane, boat, train, and all but
subterraneously. They alighted upon the quivering

shoulders of Professor Merriam and the Uptons, like
a swarm of destroying termites. At last, after some
conferences with Arelli, the Professor made out a set
written statement, giving out such facts only as they
desired to disclose and no more. In spite of this
paucity of accredited information, though, it was not
to be expected that the journals would fail in such in-
timately pleasurable details, as the fact that the Prin-
cess affected neither stockings nor cosmetics; that she
was innocent alike of smoking, drinking, and permis-
sible profanity. On the “best authority” it was
delicately given out that she even did without the tiny
crimson swastikas on her cheeks and the bracelets of
paint about her wrists and just above her knees, that
went so far to establish the character and desirability
of the females of Marelli.

When the world is in on your secret, there is no
secret; when the world finds out where you go for your
pleasures, there are no pleasures ; when the world finds
out where you eat (if you are anywise famous for
anything), you have no longer any eating place; when
the world found out about Arelli, the world wished to
go at once to Arelii. The reporters dreamed of un-
precedented “scoops.” The minerally minded felt there
was gold there. The scientists dreamed of new bugs
they might label and catalog, and designate in Latin
with their own names attached as a sort of affidavit
to their importance and validity; or they saw new
fields of geology (or lithology, at least) to explore; or
— whatever their specialty might be. Indeed there is
some support for the assertion that the discovery by
one Smith S. Smith of the avis Smithii or Arellian
nightingale, considerably antedated the discovery that
Arelli was birdless. And this despite the authentic de-
scription by Smith S. of its last note and feather.

Yes, certainly, the world wanted Arelli ardently and
at once. But how go there? They knew a ship had
already been there. They found that another was
building to go there again soon. They besieged Altara
Mountain and high heaven for passage. Being told
that the man who owned and controlled the whole trans-
action was off the Earth just then; they tried all
manner of ways to get to him — without success.

The Altara Mountaineers would gladly have closed
up the “plant” for a while entirely and taken refuge with
President Gonzales at his Titicaca residence; but they
dared not. They knew too well the place would have
been literally taken apart piece by piece by the genus
souvenir hunter and related fauna.

By reason of which the arrival of the Terraluna
was arranged for the nighttime, and the secret of her
coming guarded with care. They did succeed in ar-
riving secretly, but the secret could not be kept. The
very breezes wantonly broadcast it. And the whole
swarm was up the Mountain after them the next day.
Indeed, to insure even the safety of the very ships
themselves, President Gonzales had to send a hundred
military guards to surround the hangars.

The little Arellian Sanna had so many new things to
see and learn! Mostly she was enchanted. She saw
the birds and heard them sing and laughed happily
again at her first thought of them singing in words.
The warm-hearted Spanish-American, Mercedes, took
her to herself without reserve. That was good. That
she must learn to stay with Mercedes or others while
Larry was absent for hours at a time in the shops and
hangars — not so good. But she was brave. The ways of
Marelli might be strange, and at times even a little
hard in some points, but they must be hers, even as
Larry was hers. Professor Merriam she adored, as he
did her. Billy Upton she thought nice, too, but her
incomplete knowledge of English often made it hard
to follow what he said. It had been comparatively sim-
ple that “kid” and “colleen” signified nice little girls,

THE TERRORS OF ARELLI

539

but that “olcheese” and “olbean” and “olhorse” bore
somewhat related meanings as to men, and “tfddle-
winks” and “honeybunch” and “morning glory,” as to
women! It made her earnest little brain whirl, and
she could hardly get the time to set them down and
study them, so that she might know well the authentic
tongue of the Irish lad she so adored.

1 ARRY worked hard and earnestly. He gave his men
double pay, with generous bonuses for efficiency.
He coaxed and praised and drove them. It almost
seemed as if he were possessed of some mystic Irish
flair, or hunch, or what not, that the ship must be done
quickly — quickly !

And so it turned out, for the news that crossed the
void that night from Arelli was disquieting enough.

It was on the lowest level again. In the quiet of
the ennas, when the bustle of labor and traffic was
stilled, and there was no sound save the soft whir of
the giant pumps, working unremittingly through the
erros and the ennas to send water up to the surface
works which were to make them a new world, and to
the upper levels where no water was to be found —
in the quiet of the ennas, strange sounds began to bo
heard. The people of the lowest levels had heard the
like before — true, but then the noises had always been
muffled and had seemed far away, bearing the calm-
ing suggestion of safe barriers of solid rock between.
But now they were different — now they were different.
They were not muffled. It was almost as if they
might be at the very doors, slimily discussing and
perfecting among themselves unspeakable revenges
upon the puny beings who had kept them imprisoned
so long in their hells in the oppressive bowels of Arelli.

One had but to listen at any time to hear the voice
of one like the mad, leering laughter of a tortured
fiend, and it might almost have been fancied he was lay-
ing upon his foul plea the emphasis of hungrily curl-
ing serpentlike arms. “Ha, ha-a-a. Let me but get
a few of these odd beings in the hug of these arms.
Ha, ha-a-a-a-a-ah!”

And one could see, then, the longer, slimmer member
of the hideous group — more terrible, if such a thing
could be, than the first — opening his cavernous croco-
dile mouth as he padded wetly up on his short, flabby
legs to concur in the horrible leer. “Put me but one
of them — a young and tender-fleshed one, by choice —
in these capable jaws, and I will answer for it.”

Whereupon, with a hiss so daunting as to startle
even his foul companions, the serpent whirled silently
between, and raised his fiend’s head, from the
pouches about which the slime oozed and dripped dis-
gustingly. “S-s-s-s! S-s-s-s-s! List, my old ones. I
speak little, but — S-s-s-s!” With a lightning flicking
out of a famished red tongue, and a gleam from eyes
that froze the blood, he rustled along, as the others
drew out of his way.

“But,” counseled the ancient dean of all hells, so
old, so shriveled and loose-skinned, so unutterably evil
and merciless that he might have lived eons before in
the black depths of the surface seas when Arelli was
young, “but hist, my children all — you of the many
arms, you of the massive jaws, you of the slender
coiling form, and all of you of the pack — list, my good
children all, to one who was old before ever you licked
a drop of sweet blood upon your chops. We have had
a feast or two. Well. But you must wait a bit. We
are not many yet. The little round door this new
world was shut too soon, and more of our fellows can-
not come from below. But” — his voice sank to a rat-
tling, croaking whisper that made even the serpent
draw back — “we shall soon be myriad. In the safe
places I have found our kind are multiplying in thou-

sands. In a while it will be in tens of thousands. Aye,
if we can keep away from destruction for a space —
millions, millions! Then, my sweet children — ha ha —
then, then will we fall upon these sweet-tasting ones,
and ”

At some slight sound they slunk away, each watch-
ing the others with evil, calculating suspicion in their
lidless, unblinking eyes.

All that, multiplied many times, one could picture
from the soul-shaking sounds that shattered the quiet
of the ennas, overreaching the soft whir of the great
pumps that were making a new Eden for the Arel-
lians — all that, and be, perhaps, far below the facts.

Gradually the people began to be stricken with panic.
The tale of the missing laborers at the abandoned
well was told over many times, and yet many more,
gathering force and circumstance from each retelling,
until, from the sheer horror of it they must perforce
talk of it in hoarse whispers, with furtive glances over
the shoulders.

It was said the worst had been suppressed, that many
others had been taken by the beasts, of which losses
they had not been allowed to know; that the King,
bless him, had not wished to alarm or distress his sub-
jects unnecessarily, and so had interdicted the telling
of certain matters.

Singularly enough (or perhaps naturally) for a peo-
ple where water was scarce and valuable, the Arel-
lians were fond of bathing and swimming, and this
had been permitted in such of the storages as were
used merely for irrigation. Indeed, storages had been
installed on all levels to be convenient for the purpose.
Swimming and aquatic parties were common, and had
become a favorite form of sport.

It will be remembered that the King had directed
the Captain of the Guards to drag those storages —
since it wmuld have been unthinkable to empty them —
to make sure that none of the beasts had found refuge
in them. This the guardsmen had set about diligently;
but in the hundreds of miles of depth below the sur-
face there were multitudes of the great tanks, and the
guards were few in number, the people being peaceful
and loyal. Therefore the work at best, was a for-
midable one, requiring many erros to complete. The
Captain had reasoned, and very intelligently, that if
any of the beasts had got at large, they would be in
the lowest levels, nearest their dens. So reasoning, he
had started in the lowest level, planning to work up-
ward. There could, therefore, be no blame to attach
to him for the tragic happenings which occurred but
a few erros after he had received the King’s directions,
on a level many miles above the lowest one. No more
could blame be put on the King for not forbidding
all swimming in the storages. The searching of the
reservoirs had been at best a matter of extra caution,
really never meant to apply to more than a few of the
levels lying nearest the bottom of civilization.

A few of the young men and women had had a party
at the reservoir in question. These places were, in a
way, pleasure resorts — beach resorts — and there were
places for lounging and taking refreshments between
plunges. Some remained longer at the pool than
others. Nothing alarming w r as apparent to any. There
was no faintest supposition that any horror lurked in
the middle of their gayety. No tentacles swished
through the water to seize a victim. There was no fear
in the heart of any, so far as known.

When one of the party looked for another and failed
to find him or her, it was merely supposed the one
sought for had gone home. As the event drew to an
end, departures had been frequent, until at the last,
as in every sort of gathering, but a few remained, and
only a bare couple or so in the water. Those on the

540

AMAZING STORIES QUARTERLY

What they saw made their
blood run cold, A young girl was
struggling below the surface.

THE TERRORS OF ARELLI

541

shore gave them no attention. It was only because of a
slight gasp or exclamation, common enough, too, in the
water, that a lingering pair of insatiable lovers on the
bank had glanced casually at the two in the water.

Then the horror fell upon them, for what they saw
was a young girl, drawn struggling under the surface,
in the grasp of tentacle-like arms ; and then, as her lover
sprang to her, another curling arm had taken him with
her. JThat had been all. Then there was silence in the
pool.

T HE alarm was given by the horrified lovers on the
bank, but the place was almost deserted, and in
their panic and terror no one thought to give the alarm,
where it should have been given, but only to flee from
the place with all speed that could be made.

When at last the word reached the Captain of the
Guards, he sent a messenger to go quietly and see the
King alone and tell him of the tragedy and that he
himself would report as soon as possible. Others he
deputized to make a careful check of all the persons
known to have been in the swimming party, and learn
what ones had returned to their homes, or had been ac-
counted for. Then he headed a company of his best men
to the place of tragedy. They were heavily equipped
with every weapon that could be of avail against the
terrible unknown enemy.

At the tank, they set lights to penetrate the water;
and with glasses of special make they scanned the bot-
tom, which showed every inch of itself as plainly as a
man’s hand before him. But there was nothing there.
No need, said the Captain, to drag it. There was noth-
ing. So they went away, wondering, no wiser than
when they came.

But the check showed a full dozen people missing,
with the possibility of more.

A consultation was in progress at which the King,
Captain Tullos of the Guards, Harding and Altara,
and others were present, including old Mastono, who
had just returned from Ylisae.

“It is strange there were none of them in the tank.
It must mean they have hiding places we do not know
of.” It was Tullos. “I have gathered extra guards in
numbers, and stationed a group at each of the larger
storage reservoirs ready for them. I have a group
guarding every tunnel between the stages to see if we
cannot catch them passing from one level to another. I
have issued arms to all and they are being taught the
use of them ; and they have been warned to venture no-
where except in groups, and no women or children ex-
cept under guard. The gardens are being patrolled to
protect the men at work ; the houses are all being pro-
tected; the reservoirs are being dragged or examined;
and I do not know what more to do.”

“You have done well, Tullos,” commended the King.
“There is no blame attached to you. I could not have
done more myself. For my part, I have ordered the
construction of as many houses on the surface as the
crater will hold, and as they are completed we will move
the people into them, beginning with the lowest level.
Much of the rock for the buildings was quarried long
ago. Ten thousand men are at work on the founda-
tions and ten thousand more will begin work on the
houses at the next erro, and they will work in shifts both
erro-and enna.” ,

The Captain started up sharply. “Then I must go
at once and begin getting them ready to move, Your
Majesty.”

“No, Tullos,” said the King, staying him with a
gesture. “Your hands are more than full. I am having
others do that. The first ones are already preparing and
will begin moving at once. Some may be already on the
way up. By the end of the next erro the lowest level will

be empty, save for those who have work to do there,
and they will be guarded. Every erro one level will be
emptied. We shall have to learn how far up the beasts
have got.”

“But there will be some danger in bringing so many
people to live on the surface, Altona,” objected the
centenarian. “The atmosphere is not quite secure yet.”

“Yes, there is some danger, Mastono, but not much, I
think, and we must take that chance. I myself shall
sleep on the surface to watch the people and give them
help and confidence.”

“Bravo, dad!” cheered Harding and Altara. “We will
be with you.”

“Thank you, my children, I foreknew as much. I
have taken special precautions and it will be pretty safe,
but for the present the houses will be furnished re-
serve supplies of oxygen, and arrangements for closing
them hermetically — also for heating them — in case of
any interruption in the atmosphere.”

“It would be wonderful to sleep under the ancient
stars, Altona,” said Mastono wistfully. “It is a thing
I have never done. I wonder if I may have a place
among them.”

The King smiled fondly at the centenarian, who had
been his tutor in childhood and youth, and his chief
adviser and loyal friend in his high office. “Knowing
your spirit, my friend, I have your place already
appointed next my own. Captain Tullos, you also I
must have at hand. The other members of my house-
hold will remain where they are for the time. We must
give the houses to the frightened lower settlements, as
fast as they are ready.”

Harding had perfected his knowledge of the language
of Arelli, so that he used it quite conveniently now,
and had little difficulty following the proceedings. There
was speculation as to how many of the beasts had
escaped while the abandoned well had been left open;
as to how they had made their way unobserved to the
higher level where the tragedy of the aquatic park
had taken place; as to how many levels they might be
lurking on, and where; as to whether and how they
multiplied; and many other things.

No one had an answer to any of the questions. There
was no way of knowing, except by ways that were be-
ing taken already. It was unnecessary to lay a prohi-
bition on aquatic parties, now. No one could have
-been persuaded to go near the reservoirs, except those
who had to perform duties there.

Harding had been thoughtfully silent. He made a
suggestion now, addressing it to Captain Tullos. “Cap-
tain, if a man from a far away world may make a sug-
gestion” — The Captain nodded cordially — “Had you con-
sidered that these creatures would be likely to be, or at
least might be, invisible while in the water, and that a
mere examination of a reservoir might not reveal their
presence?”

“No, I had not, Mr. Harding,” admitted the guard
with a guilty start.

“Nor had I, Freddie, my son. Tell us about it.”

“We have on Marelli creatures of various kinds that
are transparent while in the water. They cannot live
out of the water and die if exposed to the sun. It might
be that these creatures on Arelli are the same, and if
they are invisible, nothing but dragging would show
them up.”

The hint was taken as a valuable one, to be acted on in
future searches.

“You are a great man, Freddie, my dear One,” as-
serted the Princess, kissing him, without shame or
compunction, “a great man.”

The gist of these portentous events had been re-
ceived by Larry and Sanna, Billy and Mercedes, Pro-
fessor Merriam, and their inside friends of earth, dur-

542

AMAZING STORIES QUARTERLY

ing the strange daily visits between the two worlds.

“Didn’t I tell you, Billy” — it was Larry that spoke
— “that there was a reason for rushing the work on the
ship, even though I didn’t know what it was? Per-
haps you’ll not laugh at my Irish hunches so much now.”
Upton laughed. “Perhaps not, olhorse, though I
laughed, not at you, but only at some of the things you
said. There’s a big difference, you know. Almost as
big a difference as between a big green spot — pardon me,
I mean an increasing green spot, I think — between an
increasing green spot and the ordinary garden variety
of green spot— something like that. Vide, confessions
of Frederick X. Harding.”

T HEY laughed together companionably, though
with a touch of anxiety in the background, and
Sanna, always waiting to laugh, joined, though not
more than half comprehending what Billy had said. It
was enough that Larry laughed. Professor Merriam,
albeit his old eyes could almost have been thought to
twinkle — smoked and maintained the silence of age.
Mercedes was up on the lake for the day, and Sanna had
wondered the whole day long how it was that Billy could
be gay in the face of such a calamity. She loved them
all dearly, these Marellians. They were very sweet.
But in spite of their sweetness, the ways of Marelli
were not — well, not quite as those of Arelli.

At the moment Sanna was thinking those things,
Harding was having a quiet talk with old Mastono be-
fore retiring for the enna. The King was about other
things with Tullos. Altara was content to sit silently
with her head on Harding’s shoulder, her lips moving
from time to time softly against his neck. Harding
and Mastono had found a great liking for each other,
and Harding had been wishing for this chance to listen
to him. He reminded him some way of Merriam, on
the score of his broad wisdom, his sly sense of humor,
and his grave kindliness. Mastono and Merriam must
meet.

He could see just how they would complement each
other. Merriam had impressed him often as a lonely
man in some way. Mastono the same. And it was even
then passing through Harding’s mind that the great
are often constrained into loneliness, in the beginning,
because of the necessity of excluding themselves from
free association with their fellows. They must do so,
or they could not have the time to become wise and
great. They must have their time to work — to work
by day and to work by night. Only so could they be-
come great and wise. And then, in the end, when they
had taken on wisdom and greatness, then instead of
withdrawing themselves from their fellows, their fel-
lows withdrew themselves from them. The usual man
does not seek nor care for the company of those he
cannot understand ; those who speak deeply of things he
cannot comprehend. Yes, thought Harding, as he sat
listening to the wisdom of Mastono, and at once thrilled
by the presence of the warm body of the golden Prin-
cess in his arms, and the lips of her at his neck — ■
yes, he thought, greatness w T as constrained into loneli-
ness, because of its very self. Let not the man seek
greatness who would have the song and the dance of life ;
the laughter and the lightness; the bodily thrills of
wine and viands and pleasing gustations; who would
live their lives in the company of gaming and play.
The two lie along separate highways, and the highways
end in different countries. And in the end, when pleas-
ure and wisdom meet, they are become strangers and
cannot well comprehend each the other. For what have
the frivolous to do with the universe and all its sep-
arate atoms? The bacteria and the blood? Or with
electricity, or magnetism, or time and the deep curve
of space? And what has the scientist in common with

the frothy prattle of the debutante and parties and pink
teas? Of “society” and cards and clothes? Of the
paint and varnish with which these butterflies have
chosen to cover the things he has made possible for
them — covered deep, deep, so that their tender eyesight
may not have to look upon the primitiveness of the
things he loves?

These things flashed through Harding’s mind in an
instant. And he added the thought that in these days
the scientist still might mate, because there were
women who knew how to mate with the scientist, and
still complement him, even as he had known Mastono
and Merriam would complement each the other; even
as this Royal Princess of Arelli. So that at last love
and learning might go forward hand in hand to the

goal of accomplishment. But Mastono was saying

“Civilizations and science wax and wane” — the old
man smiled gently — “and the interests of men, like the
interests of children, change within comparatively nar-
row limits of time. It is known that in remote ages
the Arellians were able to observe affairs on your
world in minute detail; but then that ability passed
away from some cause and was lost, and it was only
long afterward that it was recovered. How these things
happen we do not know. The cycles are too long for us.
At the time, a group of men was interested in the par-
ticular thing ; then it may be that the instruments were
destroyed and the men who had their secrets perished
with them. Or, it may have been the result of some
barbaric triumph over civilization; it may have been
the result of various kinds of fanaticism against
science ; it may have been the result of some other dis-
aster, which set the whole civilization back into the far
past; or, perhaps merely some overpowering interest
called attention away. All that is only speculation, but
it is certain that my people once possessed that ability,
and lost it.”

“Or, it may be,” put in Altara, when they had thought
her all but asleep, “that Arelli passed through some
inhospitable region of space that killed all her people.”
“It may indeed,” said both men at once, surprised
and pleased.

“But that would have carried with it the destruction
of all life in the solar system, including Marelli,”
objected Harding.

“That may indeed be,” mocked Altara gently, “or most
of the life. But it is likely the marine life, or some of
it, would have been saved, and all life came from the
water in the beginning, anyway. It would mean only
that evolution would have to do its work over again, but
that is only a matter of time, and time is not important
in universe matters.”

There seemed no answer to that.

“How far does your knowledge of life on Marelli ex-
tend, friend Harding?” asked the centenarian.

Harding hesitated a moment, “Well, our scientists
can trace man from the time he first evolved from the
ape-man, about the beginning, or just before the be-
ginning, of our great glacial epoch, perhaps half a
million years or more ago, right down to the present.”
“Oh! I did not know that,” said Mastono. “I had
understood that your history was comparatively recent.”
“Well, so it is — our history; but they trace him
through fossil remains they have found from time to
time, you know. They say that the very early rocks
show no signs of any living thing, or of any chemical
deposit that would indicate the presence of life, and they
say that at the time those rocks were laid down there
was no life existing on the Earth. They call those rocks
the Azoic Rocks, or Lifeless Rocks, because they are
supposed to have been the result of the sinking of the
first crust of the Earth, when no life had come yet.
They find, then, above these Azoic Rocks others that do

THE TERRORS OF, ARELLI

543

contain signs of the presence of life — primitive life.
They begin there and trace right down — with some
rather important breaks, to be sure — first through the
fossil remains found in the rocks, and then, as men
evolved and progressed, through the implements and
things they find buried with the human skeletons, and
finally, as man became a primitive artist, through the
drawings on the walls of the caves, until gradually they
get down to where our authentic history begins. Of
course, when it comes to actual historical writings, we
have none of any great age — nothing at all comparable
to your marvelous records here on Arelli.”

T HE centenarian sat musing a moment, then sud-
denly: “You speak of your glacial epoch. How

long did that last?”

Harding blushed. “Why, I — of course that is hard
to say. I am not informed technically on such matters.
Whole lives must go into those studies, and we of other
departments cannot work their problems through, but
only pick off here and there casually a few of the
answers they have set at the end of the book. But
I think there is considerable difference of opinion.”
“How wide a difference, may I ask?”

Harding laughed. “You have me there. It seems to
me I have read that the estimates run from 100,000
years to as high as 800,000 or 900,000 years.”

“And why so great a difference?” It was almost a
whisper.

“Why ? Why, because they are not sure.”

“Yes. They are not sure ; and because their evidence
is unreliable. As a matter of fact there is reason to
suppose it lasted even longer than your highest figure.
But” — he dismissed the matter with a wave of the
hand — “the difference is trivial, after all. For how
long a time do you estimate the physical conditions on
Marelli have been such that human life could have sub-
sisted there?”

“0, I don’t know about that. The physical condi-
tions of a planet change slowly— very slowly.”

“They do. A million years is a mere erro in the
evolution of a planet. It would not be fantastic to say
that physical conditions have been fit to support human
life on Marelli for anywhere from 500,000,000 to 1,000,-
000,000 years. Even our history or tradition covers
only the smallest fraction of that. But — suppose we
take the modest estimate of 500,000,000 years as the
time human life could have existed on Marelli. Com-
pare 'Rfith that the estimate of 1,000,000 years ago as
the beginning of your glacial epoch, and of your esti-
mate of the appearance of man on Marelli. You have
accounted for man during only one five-hundred-mil-
lionth of the time he could have existed. What do you
suppose was taking place during the other 499,000,000
years that conditions have been fit for human life?”
Harding grinned. “I am sure I do not know. A
million years is as far back as my memory goes.” As
he said that the thought flashed through his mind that
it was an idiotic thing to say to this wise old scientist,
and reminded him of Billy Upton — dear old idiot!

“But let me tell you,” the centenarian pressed unre-
lentingly, his old eyes snapping as he warmed to his
theme, “when human life appeared on Marelli — or on
any other planet: It appeared when conditions were

fit for it. When conditions became fit for the primitive
one-celled organism, that organism appeared ; when they
improved so that a primitive marine animal could exist
in your waters, the animal came; when more elaborate
life could subsist, it came ; when conditions became hos-
pitable for the very elaborate animal that is called man
today, he came.”

“That may well be,” admitted Harding. “I know al-
most nothing about such things.”

Old Mastono kept to his subject. His century and a
half had left his mental tenacity unimpaired. “All right,
Mr. Harding, but I have lived a long time, and I do know
a little — only a little — of these things. I know that
evolutionary conditions do not fit themselves to life : life
fits itself to them. Life follows on the heel of condition.
I know that the worlds were not made for Man, but
that Man followed the course of change, and when his
time had ripened, took his place as a casual and rela-
tively insignificant link in the chain of evolution; and
when unconsidering and relentless time makes condi-
tions again inhospitable, he must be blown away again
by a single breath of the Cosmos into the nothing
from which he emerged. He must pass, even as the
apes and the animals, the diamonds and the dust, the
water and the air, the worlds themselves — not out of
existence as something, but out of his identity as Man.
But, as I was saying — it is not merely possible, but al-
most certain, that human beings have existed upon
your Marelli for a half billion years, and maybe vastly
longer. Life runs in cycles ; but the cycles are so long
and our lives are so short that we cannot observe their
motion except with our intellects — our reason. It is
like the movement of the distant stars. To our eyes
they do not move. They are too far away. We cannot
see their motion, though they move with great speed.
It is as impossible for us to follow these vast cycles, as
for an insect, born at the middle of the erro and dead be-
fore its close, to observe and analyze the course of a
human life. It is almost certain, I say, that scores of
these cycles — these periodic surges of humanity — have
begun at the bottom, reared themselves to dizzy heights,
and passed away, since your Marelli was fit for Man.
There is not the least evidence or reason for saying
they may not have reached unthinkable heights above
us. Each cycle might have been a million years long,
or five million, or ten million years long. But mankind
has been before — billions of years, perhaps. Men as
good as we, and probably better; civilizations as good
as our best and probably better.”

“Then why do we find no trace of them or their
doings?”

“I can not say. Perhaps we do, though I think not.
If we did we might not know it. In such vast cycles
all things disappear. It may be that whatever ends,
each cycle removes its tracks. The vastness of time has
covered them so deeply or destroyed them so completely,
that we cannot, or do not, find them. Things change
continually. The only constant thing is change. Dust
is cast into an ocean. It sinks to the bottom and be-
comes mud; it becomes rock; the rock is cast up and
disintegrates into dust again, only to go through the
like process again and again, it may be. Your own
world is in no small part composed of other worlds
which have drifted its way as dust and settled down to
stay. Some day it will be torn apart and blown about
the cosmos and go to make other worlds. Man is too
small for these things, Mr. Harding. He is born on a
puff of wind and perishes with it. No doubt Man will
have billions of years yet on Marelli; but — he will be
erased and have to revolve many times.”

A LTARA raised up, suddenly. “And when man
. comes again, will he be man?” She was looking
at Harding.

Harding shook his head with a laugh and a kiss. "I
don’t know, dear creature. Man thinks himself very
great.”

“O, of course,” smiled Mastono, “and properly so, if
he does not allow himself to be blinded by his own re-
flection; and so, doubtless, does the insect that is born,
lives its life, and perishes while you sleep away an enna.
But” — Mastono put the thought away with an impatient

544

AMAZING STORIES QUARTERLY

wave of the hand — “Man is so small compared with his
world, and his world is so small compared with its solar
system, and its solar system is but a speck of dust
compared with its universe, and there are myriads of
universes.”

“Yes, that is true,” assented Harding. “I remem-
ber reading years back a good illustration of that. Some
eminent astronomer figured out that if Marelli were rep-
resented by a drop of water and the universe were re-
duced to the same scale, they would make a mighty
ocean. If she were the size of a grain of sand, the
universes would make a vast desert. If the size of her
orbit about the sun (nearly 600,000,000 miles) were
represented by the point of a pencil, the nearest star
would be over two hundred yards away.”

“Yes,” nodded Mastono thoughtfully, “that is very
good.”

“And he went on to say that if — some immense build-
ing — I’ve forgotten its name* — contained nothing but
specks of dust — I think it was six — the specks of dust
would be more crowded in the building than the stars
in space.”

“Ha! That is splendid, Mr. Harding! That is an
excellent thing. I should like to remember the name
of the man who said that. Can you tell me ?”

“Why, yes. It was an English astronomer — -England
is one of our great countries on Marelli. Ilis name is
Jeans. He is still living, I think.”

Mastono made a note of it. “Would there be any
objection if I made use of that in some class work, Mr.
Harding?”

Harding laughed. “I am sure Sir Jeans would be
pleased to have his book quoted on Arelli. Only I am
not quite sure that all of that came from Sir Jeans.
The part about the specks did, though.”

It was late into the enna when they ceased talking
and Mastono said his old body was weary, what with
the long journey and all. So they separated to sleep
their last sleep in their underground homes. The next
sleep would be under the black mantle of heaven, stud-
ded thickly with celestial jewels.

When they arose, they found the exodus of the peo-
ple of the lower settlements begun. Hundreds had ar-
rived and stacked their goods in the places designated,
which were near the buildings they would occupy. Other
hundreds were arriving. As each level was evacuated,
it would be sealed off — perhaps forever — except for
closed doors by which laborers might enter. There must
be no more passing of the beasts. This would not in-
terfere with the through tunnels to other craters, which
ran near the surface.

Thousands of laborers had toiled during the enna get-
ting the foundations ready; and as the erro came on,
the crews of builders were at work on the superstruc-
tures, which went up as if by magic. While the houses
appeared a little flimsy to Harding, accustomed to
steel and concrete, they were astonishingly sound and
fit for conditions at Copernicus.

The foundations were made by the rapid and simple
process of fusing the surface soil into a solid mass to a
sufficient depth for a stable footing. The house was
erected almost as simply. First, slabs of polished
stone eight or nine feet high, a few inches thick, and a
few feet wide, were set on edge on the foundation and
fused to it; then other slabs were laid across them and
fused in place. The openings were cut neatly and
smoothly by a disintegrating torch, and the glass of the
windows set in; then the doors, and the people moved
in and began settling themselves into the marvelous
new life of the surface. The dwellings were small at
the start, but were so planned that they could be made

larger and another story or stories added when there
was more time. There was no rain to guard against;
no cold or heat. The power ceiling miles overhead,
that kept the air in the crater, automatically kept the
temperature at the desired point. The climate would
always be the same, except when altered as desired.

It suddenly came to Harding, as he watched the miles
of homes shooting up, that here was the setting for such
a paradise as he had never reached in his fondest
dreams. In his mind’s eye he pictured the rows and
rows of homes rising along the broad talus of the
cliffs — 150 miles in circuit these cliffs were — circling
Lake Altara, with plenty of space between, with gardens
and flowers.

As for the beasts, it looked to Harding as if they were
checkmated, which only showed how little he knew of
the matter, for within a single erro’s time word cams
from the surrounding craters of (to adhere to the
Earth names as far as possible) Stadius, Eratosthenes,
Kepler, Ptolemy, Aristarchus, and the Hyginus Valley,
that there were signs of the arising of the beasts.

From the fact that this account adheres in large
portion to the crater Copernicus, because the main
actors have dwelt there, it will not be supposed that
Copernicus was in any respect unique, save as being the
capital and residence of the King, and in some meas-
ure, because the surface works had made greater prog-
ress there. The inhabitants of hundreds of other cra-
ters, both on the hemisphere visible to Earth, and on
that which is always invisible, lived in almost exactly
the same manner.

The sub-Arellian settlements of each crater (save
Copernicus, which was under the direct rule of the
King) were under the local control of the King’s gov-
ernors, who were selected from the local population,
according to the people’s wishes. These governors
ruled as they pleased, but subject to a strict accounting
of their stewardship to the King.

Nor was the knowledge of the sub-surface beasts
confined to the capital. They were supposed to exist
beneath all of the craters — in fact more or less through-
out the interior of Arelli. They had been heard in the
lowest strata of several of the craters. It only chanced
that circumstances had brought about their first actual
depredations at Copernicus.

Neither were the preparations for surface living
limited to Copernicus. It was a wide-flung policy of
the King who occupied the throne at the time.

The King had caused warning against the beasts to
be sent out to all governors, with complete details from
time to time of the action taken and proposed against
them. So that the governors were not taken completely
by surprise, even though it had been supposed that the
escape of the beasts at Copernicus had been the fault
of the abandoned well being left open, and other out-
breaks had not been expected elsewhere.

T HIS raised other questions. Had the matter of
the well been responsible? Or had it merely as-
sisted the beasts in the particular case? In either
event, how had they escaped in the other craters? It
was incredible that they passed from crater to crater by
the highway tunnels. Evidently the matter required
further looking into, if Arelli was to prevent its people
being smothered out of being beneath the slimy, crawl-
ing horde.

Harding had been waiting impatiently for Mastono
to announce what it was that he had gone to his old
home at Ylisae to bring. The next time they talked to-
gether, the centenarian opened the subject.

“When I was young,” said Mastono, “I had some part
in reorganizing the records. That was at the old capi-
tal, Ylisae, where I have lived a large part of my life.

♦Waterloo Railroad Station in London.

THE TERRORS OF ARELLI

545

During that work I found a strange thing. It was our
custom to test each record after we re-installed it, to
make sure it was in order. Our records are contained,
as I think you already know, Mr. Harding, in the
molecular structure of minute wires or tapes of pre-
pared metal, uniform in size and composition.”

Harding nodded. “Yes.”

“Well, the test showed the wires of one cabinet to
be blank — or, at least, they refused to produce anything
when subjected to the ordinary tests. That might have
meant merely that the particular tape had not been
used, and had been placed among the others by acci-
dent. But my assistant, who discovered it, was a very
intelligent fellow, and instead of casting it aside, he
made some experiments on it to see if he could not
bring out what had been recorded on it, if anything.
In this he did not succeed. The record could not be
persuaded to reproduce any flashes of sight or any
sounds. Even he might then justifiably have discarded
it, and probably would have done so, had he not seen
that the cabinet in which it was housed was of a dif-
ferent make from the others, or any he had ever seen.

“So he set it aside for the time, and later brought
it to me. The peculiar appearance of the cabinet was
perhaps all that restrained me from throwing it away
at once. It was easy to see that it was of very ancient
make. But when I examined it carefully, I saw it was
really unique and concluded it was worth investigating
further, though I cannot say, even now, that I had
much to go on. At any rate, I put it by, and being busy
with many other matters, left it for years. Finally
something drew my attention to it again, and I set to
work on it. At last I found its secret and succeeded in
reproducing what it contained. It had been recorded
by a somewhat different process.

“The contents I found astonishing, and that is what
I have just been to Ylisae to fetch.” He sat silent for
a few minutes, gazing out the windows across Lake
Altara and the cultivated region around it, to “Atti
Bettor,” and the other mountain cones beyond. It was
plain that the novelty and wonder of the surface living
was still on him. After a while he rose from his revery
and went to a table on which stood the ancient metal
cabinet. He put his hand on it as fondly as if it had
been a favorite child. “You see this little cabinet, Mr.
Harding? It is of a kind that is known no more on
Arelli.” He made an electric connection, passing the
current through a small mechanism which he put on
the table beside the ancient cabinet.

“You see the lettering on the outside? It is so an-
cient that all our efforts have failed so far to decipher
it completely, though we have made out some of it.
The characters have changed. But we have been more
fortunate with the words which the record reproduces.
It, too, is so old as to be greatly changed, but we have
been able to translate the greater part of it, though not
quite all. Its age I do not know, though it must have
been originally dictated a very long time ago, and deals
with a period much more remote. It is some sort of
review or digest of previous records, which are still
existent and may be a milllion years old. I cannot say
yet. I wish to speak of them, also.”

Harding sat up straight in astonishment. “Why that
seems impossible, my friend. Can a thing of metal en-
dure half a million years?”

Mastono shook his head. “I do not know. Possibly.
But I said ‘originally dictated.’ The records may have
been renewed by the simple process of either re-dicta-
ting the contents or having them re-dictate their own
contents on other records. The tape itself shows that.
Perhaps it may have been renewed several times. I do
not know about that. At any rate, the voice you will
hear is not the original one. Though itself very old,

it is a long way removed from the original one. I do
not know how long the old records lasted. Our own
present records, which are over 200,000 years old, have
never been renewed so far as I know, though they may
have been. Two hundred thousand years is a long time.
If they have not been, they will be at some time,
or a digest of their important parts, when they begin
to fail, if they ever do. In that way there is no reason
why history could not be preserved for millions of years
— perhaps forever” — he looked up apologetically, add-
ing, “whatever the word ‘forever’ may mean.”

W ITHOUT further ado, he flicked a switch and the
voice in the cabinet began to speak in what to
Harding, in spite of his growing mastery of Arellian,
was an unfamiliar tongue. After letting it run for
a while, Mastono shut it off, and took from a drawer a
sheaf of sheets containing writing and drawings. He
explained that these had been made at his direction
from the instructions that were contained in the an-
cient record. He selected one drawing larger than the
others, and spread it out before them. It was a geo-
graphical chart or map of a section of country, and the
several crater-like formations said that the country was
on Arelli. Plainly, it was the dry bed of an ancient
ocean enclosed within a frame of mountains on three
sides. Harding was too good a selenographer not to
recognize it at a glance.

“The Lai Estoti,” he said. “We call it the Mare Im-
brium, or Sea of Showers. Not far from Copernicus.”
Mastono nodded briefly and selected a written sheet.
“Draw a line,” he read, “from the center of Plato to
the center of Copernicus.”

Harding followed the line on the plate across the
Sea of Showers, near the middle, and Mastono con-
tinued to read.

“Draw a line from the center of Aristillus to the
center of Aristarchus. Where the lines come together
is a very deep part of the Lai Estot, which still con-
tains some water when this record is made. From the
middle of this water two mountain peaks rise. Draw a
line due north of the summit of the higher peak about
nine lenni, to the foot of the cliff. Pass north on a
level into the cliff and enter a natural cavern. Buried
under a great crystal pillar are the ancient historical
records of the people who have dwelt on the surface
of Arrall (Arelli), and who are leaving the surface for-
ever to dwell below the ground. The records we can-
not take with us. Perhaps some day some one will re-
turn for them. They speak both of Arrall and Massall
(Marelli), for many iltellos.”

Mastono replaced the sheets and sat down, and Hard-
ing walked to and fro. There was a long silence, broken
by Mastono.

“My friend, nobody knows how long ago it was that
the people of Arelli left the surface. The dates given
in these records do not help us, because they do not
connect with our own, and we do not know what time
they date from. It may be half a million years, or much
longer. These buried records which are spoken of in
this old cabinet may run back a million, or several
million years — the originals of them. If the surface
people preserved their records by reproducing them
from time to time, we cannot tell how many million
years they may cover. They could be preserved in
that manner as I have said.” He pointed a finger at
Harding. “And you of Marelli are as much concerned
as we, for evidently your history is there as well as our
own. You remember I told you that formerly our peo-
ple had the ability to observe in detail the happenings
on Marelli.”

“Yes, friend Mastono, that is true. We must get
those records. As soon as the ships return from Marelli,

546

AMAZING STORIES QUARTERLY

we will take the Termluna and go to the place where
they are. We will get them. Larry is going to bring
the old Terraluna back, and also bring the new ship,
which we have agreed to christen the Altarasanna. The
Altarasanna is finished and ready now except for cer-
tain instruments which Larry has been promised very
soon. Larry has a man who will pilot the Terraluna
while he navigates the Altarasanna.”

Mastono’s face was wistful. “I should like to see
those records before I die, Mr. Harding. I am get-
ting old.”

Harding gave his hand to the centenarian. “You
shall, my friend. I promise them to you. We will go
as soon as we can after the ships arrive.”

Tears of joy and gratitude sprang into the eyes of
Mastono at the rebirth of a hope that had been all but
lost, and he turned away to hide them — turned away
to look through the windows across Lake Altara, then
to raise his eyes to the myriads of stars always shining
in the black firmament of Arelli.

T HUS the Princess found them as she came in from
the receptions she had to attend. Her face was
graver than Harding had ever seen it, but she smiled
at them and went to lie a while in the arms of her
husband before speaking of anything.

“My dear one,” she said, at last, “do you think Larry
and Sanna had better come to Arelli now, when there
is such danger? The beasts are breaking out all over
Arelli, and no one can say how they are doing it or
what the end will be. Many hundreds of our people
have been killed in a score of craters. Do you think
we should let them come now?”

“Why, of course, sweetheart. The beasts are not go-
ing to harm us. They will be killed or driven back be-
low. Of course the people from Marelli must come.
There will be Larry and Sanna, Billy and Mercedes,
Professor Merriam, and several others, perhaps. They
will help us against the beasts. Merriam is studying
the matter even now. And then, at the worst I should
want the ships here, if it became necessary to take you
and dad and Mastono here, and a few others away.”
Altara shook her head. “That could never be, my
dear one. My father would not leave his people to
perish, nor would I. I am the Princess of Arelli, dear
one.”

They put such thoughts aside as far as they could,
and went out to see the work of building. It seemed as
if magic were being wrought. Row upon row of the
dwellings were already growing with mushroom speed,
from the line of the cultivated area of the “increasing
green spot,” back almost to the edge of the sheer cliffs
of the crater side. Thousands were already occupied,
and teeming caravans of people and goods were ar-
riving by erro and enna.

Several of the lowest levels had already been emptied
of their inhabitants and closed, and every level from
the lowest to the highest was now closed against the
passage of the beasts. It was felt that they could not
have reached the higher levels, and that these would
now be safe for living, as well as for producing the food
without which all would be lost. And it did seem, as
the erros came and went, that the instant and vigorous
action of the King had saved the greater part of Coper-
nicus from the beasts. Not a sign of them had ap-
peared above the level of the aquatic park where the
disaster had occurred. If they could be kept below this
level, there would be room in the caverns and settle-
ments, and along the tunnel-ways for many refugees if
they came, and the food could be raised to feed them by
extending the gardens and applying forced growth. A
crop could be planted and brought to edibility in a few
erros. Possibly even the lower levels could be utilized

in an emergency, by establishing enough defenses. Each
of the settlements of any level could be shut off from all
the others by closing the tunnels, and as the surface
buildings progressed and men cculi be spared, this
work was put under way.

It was the King’s idea that Copernicus must be made
and kept safe as a refuge for the ' • • . : in case it
came to leaving their homes in the ether .raters. As
yet there had been no influx from the taker tarts of
Arelli.

On account of conditions it was th: .rat ~lse t: keep
secret the arrival of the ships trim Marti; as the
gathering of crowds was deemea tar desirable. So it
came about at the beginning of at err; aaat the Ter-
raluna settled down into the crate: as :: etby as any
vessel dropping anchor in its htrte 7 rt : ra a casual
voyage. Shortly the Altarasa lay t .as trailer mate.

Dannie Marston and Gaston Per: t. — . : : Larry’s
assistants at Altara Mountain, ha: trtttrk: ;ver the
Terraluna, while the others ha: . e: the Altara-
sanna. The former were tall, lean . - • :: keen eyes

and ready smiles and wit, with t-arar — ty" looking
out from their eyes.

There was more kissing than hat : — : •• n on Arelli
for a hundred iltellos. Mercedes . — k e : she ; ; ild spare
her arms from Altara, ran to Pit; t: an: then re-
leased herself to fly to the King in ■ — .r.imitable

way and give him enough kisses tt • — : t nt in tasting
for many erros and ennas; the ra il Jrtntesi of Arelli
kissed Larry and shamelessly bent : »t:: embrace Pro-
fessor Merriam; Billy Upton kisse-b m - Princess until
Mercedes vowed she was ashairu: : : — Larry and

the King joined hands, when they . : . tee at each

other, in a grip that bruised the fee: mi bent the
bones.

Dannie Marston and Gaston Fee " -*e it m: gener-

ously introduced by Larry as the : et - - J y respon-
sible for the prompt and efficient tr-ei: t : the Alta-
rasanna. Both were airmen to the the re:-:.; -.

At last two old men stood near e 1 . : th. - r Merriam

offered his hand. “You are Mast t n t I kr ~ I greet
you, my old friend.” The grip was 1 - tne, even if
it had perhaps not the muscular r-:~er :: the y; unger
ones. “Merriam, my friend,” sail the . Tartarian,
“you are thrice welcome to Arelli. There ::e a hun-
dred things I am waiting to ask ; : . — - . 1 thou-

sand, I think.” They drew a little ast ir M;w how is
it that”— etc. etc.

Others came up to greet and welcome the re~: tmers.
It may be that the petite Sanna strutter her pretty lit-
tle body a bit importantly on the sccre :f having be-
come an interplanetarian traveler atti ..t.tem It
may be that Irish Larry gave himself an air ;: ~n of
justifiable pride over the new ship, and hi; a;; trtplish-
ments in respect thereto. It is certain the nv: inters
stood dumfounded at the vast surface settlement that
had grown up in Copernicus. Some remembered seeing
Altara go to Mercedes impulsively and say; "0. Mer-
cedes, how I love you!” And hearing the warm-hearted
Spanish girl reply, “ 0 , Altara, you beautiful gulden
creature! I wish I were a blonde!” Which latter it is
doubtful if the Princess comprehended by more than
the half.

Harding’s soul was delighted by the old affectionate
appellations of olhorse, oleheese, olbean, and many
others too long, for it is almost certain that his re-
mark, “Billy you damn old idiot,” should be so in-
terpreted. Fortunately Sanna’s command of the lan-
guage acquired from her earnest study at the Mountain
was sufficient to restrain her from addressing His
Majesty the King by any of the more cordially am-
biguous titles which she had heard fall so gracefully
from the lips of Billy Upton.

THE TERRORS OF ARELLI 547]

B Y and by they were all seated at a big table in the
King’s own surface house, and some were partak-
ing of their first meal on another than their home
planet.

The royal dwelling had need to be large, seeing the
number of people of one sort and another it must house.
It was by no means complete as yet — only enough of it
for temporary purposes. The King would not permit
the attention of the workmen to be given to anything
like luxury for himself until the wants of his people
had been fully served in the matter of surface homes.
The telephone system of his underground quarters had,
however, been connected directly to the new dwelling,
so that messages might be received and sent without
delay at any hour of the erro or enna. By the King’s
side at table stood a small box-like affair through which
he received and sent messages without the necessity of
moving from his place.

Hardly had the reunion meal begun when a message
came through from the two craters of Esoh and Evas,
to the east. It was bad news, too. The King had ad-
vised the evacuation of these two unimportant craters,
both of which were small, having a population of but a
few thousand. No surface works had been inaugurated
there because of their projected abandonment. The
underground tunnel roadways were inadequate and in-
complete, and in spite of repeated warnings of the
necessity of being prepared in case of the appearance of
the beasts, the matter of guards had been attended to
only indifferently and half-heartedly. Such guards as
had been stationed were as apt as not to be asleep at
their posts.

This, it appeared, was about what had happened, for
the word, that came to the King now, was that the
beasts had appeared almost simultaneously in the two
little craters, which were near together, swarming over
and smothering out the whole populations with the ex-
ception of a bare remnant that was fleeing through the
tunnels to the nearest crater, Grimaldi.

Little could be done. The King instructed Tullos,
the Captain of the Guards, whom he kept at his side
constantly, to get Grimaldi and issue a warning that
if the tunnel leading eastward had not already been
closed, it should be done at once, only making provision
for the passage of the panic-stricken refugees from
Evas and Esoh. It was learned later that the beasts
had overtaken the fleeing survivors in the tunnels and
destroyed them all.

The vast crater of Grimaldi and near-by Riccioli, a
thousand miles to the east of Copernicus, Kepler but a
short distance east of Copernicus, Eratosthenes to the
north, the Hyginus Valley to the west, and Ptolemy and
Herschel to the south — all these and other neighbors
of Copernicus, and therefore under the more intimate
oversight of the King, had taken every possible means
of defense. While all of these had joined enthusiastic-
ally in the King’s plans for return to surface living,
Kepler and Erathosthenes in particular, were fully
abreast of the capital itself. Kepler, under the able
governorship of a brother of King Altona, had had but
a slight outbreak of the beasts, which had been promptly
and effectually crushed. The surface dwellings were
even in advance of the capital.

On the other side of the picture, Plato, near the north
pole, Anristarchus to the southeast of Plato, Aristillus
and Linne in the Sea of Serenity, Proclus and Atlas, in
the northwest — all were fighting for their very lives,
desperately trying to hold the scourge in check while
dispatching their women and children and aged through
the tunnels to the safer places.

Tycho, at the south pole, fifty miles in diameter and
17,000 feet deep, was energetically and ably defended,
while Bailly in the Doerfel Mountains, 180 miles long,

Clavius 143 miles long, and the black hole o'f Blancanus,
24,000 feet deep — all were in distress.

And so the story went, all over Arelli. It seemed as
if the issues were definitely joining for the life or death
of Arelli; the question being pressed as to who should
rule for the future — humans or ghastly beasts.

“How does it happen, sir,” asked Larry across the
table, “that the beasts break out in the craters only?
Why don’t they break out to the surface as well? I
don’t suppose they have any way of knowing what lies
above them.”

The King turned to answer Captain Tullos, who had
come in and spoken quietly in his ear. The conversa-
tion was extended, and the faces of both were grave and
drawn. But when Tullos had gone hurriedly out the
King smiled fondly at Larry. “Why, my boy, I suppose
they show themselves in the craters because in them
the excavations have been carried to such depths as to
be easier of access — however they get access. But they
may also appear on the surface, too. We have no way
of knowing, since we do not ourselves go upon the sur-
face generally. If any have got through to the sur-
face they have no doubt perished. I wish they were
all there. As to how much the beasts know about the
surface — how intelligent they may be — I can say noth-
ing of that, except by surmise, and one man’s sur-
mise is as good as another’s.”

Professor Merriam had broken off something he had
been saying to Mastono, to listen. “Yes, yes, of course,
Your Majesty. Yes. But still, these — er — beasts have
lived on the moon — er — on Arelli, for a great many
thousand of years — a great many tens of thousands —
and it may be — it may well be, that they have developed
some sort of beastly intelligence, or even a low form
of central control. Yes. It may even be that the
various species of beasts have united under the domin-
ion of overlords or rulers from among their higher in-
telligences.”

All looked at Merriam as if trying to make out
whether he were perpetrating a jest but the Professor
shook his head gravely, as he continued.

“No, no, my friends. No. You think I am gone a
little crazy, from the change of — of climate. But I as-
sure you I am serious. No. Wherever human being3
have existed there have been always subjects of stories
or fables, concerning demons, or devils, or evil spirits.
My friend Mastono here, has told me the same stories
exist on Luna — er — Arelli. These demons always live
in dens or terrible places under the ground; always
they are said to be companions of the fire, or noxious
fumes and vapors; always they live in darkness or a
phosphorescent light; always they are variously and un-
pleasantly shaped. There is never a tradition or super-
stition that is not based on something real — some ele-
ment, at least, of truth. Which makes me think the
like of this trouble has been experienced before.”

It was Billy Upton who broke the brief silenoe en-
suing. He threw up his hands in mock protest. “My
dear old ch — er — old friend and savant, how you do
harrow our feelings. You have made me swallow a — a —
whatever you call these things — whole and I think it is
about to choke me. And I distinctly heard her Royal
Highness ”

“Billy, don’t be an ass!” — Harding.

“But Freddie, my dear old overripe tomato! Why
terrify the ladies? Tough nuts like you and me and
the Professor — all O. K., of course. It’s a pleasure to
us. Nothing could frighten us — er — worse than we are
already, but ”

“Billy, do hush!” It was Mercedes, and a soft hand
cut off whatever remained of Upton’s remarks. “Papa
Merriam, do go on with your perfectly abstruse re-
marks. Billy is very rude, as I may have said before,

548

AMAZING STORIES QUARTERLY

and when I get him alone — do go on, daddy Merriam.”
Upton subsided. “All right, little peach blossom, I’m
done. As nothing but a husband, I submit.”

“Hush, Billy.” But she kissed him, and something
about the proceeding made Altara, only half compre-
hending the verbal passages, lean over and kiss her hus-
band, too.

“Yes, yes, my dear Mercedes,” said Merriam. “You
are right — er — that is, I mean, Billy is right, although

I may say, you are also ”

“Sure, Professor, an’ we’re all of us all right. Some-
times I even think I’m right meself — at the same time
askin’ the pardon of the little colleen here.”

T HEY all laughed at Larry’s words, and the meal
finished in lightness and jollity, even though stark
tragedy stalked on Arelli. But it is always so. Man
has laughed in the intervals between the turns of the
rack of flashes of fiendish agony. Man has laughed
with the fire eating his flesh away, and in the face of
death itself. They laughed, though they did not know
at what hour they should all be overwhelmed by the
demon hordes from below. It is Nature’s wise pro-
vision that her children shall laugh.

Merriam and Mastono went off to continue some argu-
ment. The three young girls went over to the old under-
ground royal quarters, where Altara and Sanna wanted
to show many things to Mercedes, and perchance, for all
a man can know, to speak among their woman selves of
certain toward events.

The King and Larry, Harding and Billy Upton, re-
mained to talk together, and the three latter to smoke —
a habit the King half wished, half feared to form. In-
deed he had tried a cigarette once in strict confidence,
but in his awkwardness had lodged a piece of tobacco in
the wrong place and coughed half the enna before he
could dislodge it.

We cannot resist the temptation, here, to let the
reader listen but a moment to the learned discourses of
the centenarian and the professor — just a moment, be-
fore readjusting the dials to the wave length of the
royal party. It is the learned Merriam speaking — Mer-
riam, A.B., A.C., A.D., and all the rest of the alphabet.

“No, no! Don’t swallow it, my friend ! Watch me a
moment. See? It is very simple. It is really a most de-
lightful practice. It soothes the nerves. It assists in
concentration and contemplation. It— now try again,
my friend. You will get it in a moment. Go easy at first.
Just draw the smoke into your mouth and blow it out
again. That’s it ! That’s it ! Splendid. Yes, yes. You’ll
learn. Just keep trying. Yes.”

Picking up the genial Billy in the middle of a sen-
tence — “same time, I just speak of it, though Professor
Merriam won’t thank me to steal his thunder and light-
ning. If he roars about it, Freddie, olhorse, you might
just say Mercedes gave it away. He’s afraid of Mer-
cedes.”

Harding was serious at once. “That’s the first real
idea I’ve heard yet, dad. Billy’s so darn modest that
when he has an idea he tries to palm it off on somebody
else. Do all your pumping from the reservoirs on the
abandoned levels and dry them up, and it may stop these
beasts from multiplying in the water. As far as we
can be sure, they haven’t escaped except through the
open hole, and there can’t be many of them loose below
us here.”

The King nodded. “I will do that at once.”

Upton went on. “Then concentrate heavy forces with
heat guns, or whatever you call your local Gatlings here,
and drive them back gradually and seal off every foot of
space you can gain.”

“Yes, that’s being done, Billy,” said the King.

“All right, then, keep it up till we reach the bottom,

and we’re bound to find out eventually whether they’re
still coming through from below, and if so, where, and
to stop them.”

And so it went on for hours, suggestions one after
another being made, considered, and adopted, modified,
or discarded. At last Harding spoke of the wish of
Mastono to visit the cavern of the ancient records, and
his promise to take one of the ships and help try to
uncover them.

“No reason why you should not go, Freddie, my son,”
assented the King. “There is nothing you can do here
any more than is being done.”

“But have you thought of how you are going to land
and excavate into that cliff, old bean ? You know the air
and the climate and things on the surface here aren’t
just regular.”

“Yes, that’s all fixed, Billy. Dad is going to let us
have some of the suits worn by the workmen when they
had to go up to the surface in installing the power ceil-
ing and things. No trouble about that, I think. The
people can go on the surface if they want to, the only
reason they don’t being that they have no occasion to.”

And so it was arranged to start soon on the pleasant
but none the less hazardous adventure of the search for
the ancient records. The party was to consist of Mas-
tono and Merriam, Harding, Upton, and Larry. The
Princess declared for remaining behind, and Mercedes
decided to stay with her. Sanna was more difficult.
There might be danger, she said, and she would go
watch over Larry. But the two girls at last won her to
remain, which was more than a man could have done,
and it was a relief to the men of the expedition. But
this was only conditioned on the adventurers keeping
in constant touch with home by radio and television.
Marston and Perot elected to remain with the Terra-
luna, which had become as near to them as their meat
and drink.

The Altarasanna was carefully equipped. Instruments
for determining the position of the peaks in the Lai
Estoti were a part of her ordinary fittings. Surface suits
for all were got out and carefully gone over. Every
available sort of weapon was provided. The beasts
were abroad, and nobody knew what they might have
to meet before they got back. Tools for the excavation
into the record cavern, lamps for lighting the cavern, a
surface car for the removal of the records to the ship,
with tackle for hoisting them should they prove of great
weight, and many other things were provided.

The trip was but a few hundred miles, and could
easily be made in a couple of hours. How long their
labors would require was a matter of conjecture. The
King found opportunity in the absence of the women to
caution them gravely to be on their guard in the matter
of the beasts, particularly upon entering the ancient
cavern. This warning, however, was hardly needed, as
it was difficult for anyone to forget for so much as an
hour the menace that hung heavy over all alike on
Arelli.

Mastono, despite his 160-odd years, was as eagerly
excited as a child, at the prospect of sailing over the
surface of the planet. It would be a feat that he would
be the first living member of his race to accomplish,
certainly the first for untold thousands of years — except
for little Sanna. He vowed aside to Merriam, that it
was well worth living a century and a half for the great
adventure. All in all, he became so excited that he
choked on the new and delightful habit of smoking
which Merriam had taught him with such pains. As the
moorings were about to be cast free, the King remem-
bered to caution them gravely for the third time to be
careful in using the disintegrating torches on the air-
less surface, as a slight accident to a surface suit would
mean instant death to the wearer.

549

THE TERRORS <0F ARELLI

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T HE Altarasanna rose majestically until she was
above the surrounding rim of Copernicus, above
the power ceiling, out in the cold blackness of the ether,
then with a reassuring signal to those looking up from
below, they gathered speed and shot away toward the
north and out of sight.

Sufficient elevation was made at once to raise the
crater of Plato, inasmuch as a direct line between Plato
and Copernicus was one of the determinators of the lo-
cation of the ancient cavern of the records. It would
then be necessary only to bear in the direct line until
intersecting a straight line between Aristillus and Aris-
tarchus, when they should be at their destination. To
the men from Marelli it seemed as if it might be a
well nigh impossible task to distinguish either Aristillus
or Aristarchus from the multitudes of other craters
which came within their view as they arose to a height.
But old Mastono knew his craters. Every detail of both
those that he sought was impressed indelibly upon his
mind from the study of plats and other data, and with-
out the use of any references he was able, by dint of
puffing gravely on the pipe Merriam had given him,
and the use of glasses, to locate both.

As the Altarasanna neared the intersection of the
line between Aristillus and Aristarchus, she was
brought down to a few hundred feet from the ground
and her speed reduced to a mere crawl, while Mastono
and Harding scrutinized the surface eagerly. Presently
they found themselves over a deep, oblong valley with
two peaks rising from the bottom. Directly ahead of
them at a short distance the northern side of the valley
ended in sheer cliffs. The record had said about nine
lenni, which would equal something like a quarter of a
mile and this they judged would be about the distance
from the higher of the two peaks to the foot of the cliff.
They knew they had reached the spot where the ancient
cavern was located. Just at the shore of what had been
a part of the Lai Estoti, and running up near to the cliff,
was a gently sloping place that would do very well to
land. This they did without incident, as near to the
cliff as they could.

Before preparing to disembark (having had radio
connection with Copernicus and received divers and
sundry further warnings from the women) they ex-
amined the locality with care. There was no trace of
anything alarming, and they had seen nothing of the
sort on the way from Copernicus. If the beasts had
braved or blundered upon the inhospitable surface of
Arelli, it had not been thereabout, apparently.

But the cliff extended unbroken for miles and as no
trace of any markings was visible on its face, it would
first be necessary to run an accurate line north from
the top of the taller peak. This would be the work of
only a few minutes with a compass.

They looked over the surface suits again carefully.
Their very lives depended upon these. A slight imperfec-
tion, permitting the cold to come in or the air to escape
would mean instant death. Having assured themselves
that all was well, and adjusted the tiny radio sets inside
the headpieces to enable them to communicate with
each other on the airless, and therefore non-sound-con-
ducting surface, they put the suits on and let themselves
out upon the ground. Larry and Upton carried the dis-
integrating torches with which they would bore their
way into the cliff, and Merriam and Mastono carried
lights, while Harding brought the compass and certain
other instruments.

Harding proceeded to determine a line due north of
the peak, while the others waited eagerly. The im-
patience of old Mastono mounted to fever pitch. His
eyes shone brightly through the window of his head-
piece, and he moved about nervously. Merriam was
quieter, though undoubtedly almost as excited as the

centenarian. The point of attack fixed, Larry poised
a disintegrating torch at the place indicated and was
about to turn it on. Harding had just cautioned him
to have a care in its use, when Merriam raised a hand.

“Just a moment, Larry, my boy.” He turned to
Mastono. “My friend, the directions which we are fol-
lowing were written very many thousands of years ago,
were they not?”

Mastono nodded, impatient at the slightest delay.
“Of course.”

“Well, then — I had no thought of it until this very
moment, but north a hundred thousand years ago, or
two or three hundred thousand years ago ”

Mastono saw the point instantly. Evidently he had
not thought of it either. He threw up a hand. “Ah!
What a fool I am! Now I shall have to make some long
and difficult calculations. Let us go back into the ship.
We must— I do not even know if I can calculate where
north would have been when the directions were written,
because I do not know how long ago it was done. It
may be two hundred thousand, or five hundred thousand
years.” He made a determined gesture. “But come —
we must try.”

While Merriam and Mastono were making their cal-
culations, a report was again made to Copernicus, more
cautions received, and then the three younger men went
out again to make another careful examination of the
cliff. Perhaps they could find some markings to show
them where to start in. Perhaps the person who wrote
the directions had not thought of the change in the
points of the compass during the thousands of years
that might ensue before the ancient cavern of the rec-
ords would be sought ; otherwise it did seem that a mark
would have been made, even though the directions were
silent about it.

But though they scrutinized every foot of the cliff,
they found nothing, and returned to the ship to await
the completion of the mathematical calculations, even
though it was apparent these might bring no great
certainty.

T HEY found the two older men hallowed in smoke,
hard at their figures, so after closing the airlocks
of the ship, they put off their surface suits, sent another
message to Copernicus, and sat down where they could
look out toward the cliffs. Somewhere along that rocky
face was the right place to excavate. But where? The
passage of the eons had doubtless obliterated any outer
marking that had been made to point out that place. It
seemed incredible no such mark would have been set.
They sat a while in silence. A vague stirring of an idea
had been making itself felt in Larry’s fertile brain,
but he could not grasp it. It was one of those tantalizing
subconscious impressions that men work at for days and
weeks before it crystallizes. Sometimes it never does.
Larry kept trying to coax it to the level of conscious-
ness. He found his eyes returning to one certain place
in the cliff’s face, but why he could not say.

“Listen here, old dears,” mused Billy Upton at length,
“it may be there is something — or was something at the
time those records were interred — about the external
contour of that line of cliffs that they thought ought to
give a clue to any searcher. Of course, it may be that
they clean missed the fact that the north pole at that
time might be the equator a few hundred thousand years
later — but — it doesn’t seem likely — not to me, it doesn’t.
It may be, too, that they set a plain mark of some kind,
but that doesn’t seem likely either. They valued those
records next to their very insides, and they’d think that
if they marked the spot too plainly — made access to it
too easy — they might be found by someone who wouldn’t
appreciate the records and might just destroy them.
They’d figure that if the searchers were the sort they’d

THE TERRORS OF ARELLI

551

want to find them — scientific men, like you and me,
Larry” — he cast a humorous glance at Harding — “like
you and me, Larry, why — why they’d be smart enough

to figure the thing out. But ”

Larry suddenly put up an arresting hand. “Wait, Billy
— wait. I’ve been almost having an idea for quite a
while. I pretty near got it then. Hold hard a second.
Let me think. I believe you’re right, Billy. Now let us
three look at that cliff and choose the place where we’d
start digging in if we wanted to put away the records.
You both pick out your spot. I’ve picked mine.”
Harding spoke for the first time. “Right there al-
most exactly opposite us, where the line of the cliff
makes a little indent. That’s the spot, I’d say. There’d
be about ten or fifteen feet shorter dig to get inside.
And you, Billy, old idiot?”

“We-el-ell, maybe, and maybe not. I’ve been trying
to reconstruct this place as it was when this was all
sea. The water covered those cliffs, covered those
peaks back of us, covered the whole thing here. There
was nothing but water in sight. There was a natural
open cave over there in those cliffs, filled with water.
As the water went down so the cliffs were uncovered,
the water would keep washing that cave deeper into
the cliff, just as w T e often see on our coast lines. That’s
the way things probably stood when those records were
cached there. If it hadn’t been open, they wouldn’t
have known the cavern was there. So they put the
records away, and came out and looked the place over,
and one cautious old chap said, ‘Fellers, these here
records are doggone important things. I think we
better close up that place there, so somebody or some-
thing, animals, maybe — can’t get in and raise the very
dickens with our babies in there.’ Remember there

was still air here then. So ”

“How do you know there was air? They might have
had suits on like these.” He indicated the surface
suits lying where they had discarded them.

“Think again, Larry, olhorse. There was air here —
quite a little sprinkling of it. Take that from an au-
thority on whatever’s the matter with you. There was
air, because if there hadn’t been there wouldn’t have
been water. The directions say there was still water
in this basin where the peaks are. So, as I was about
to say, this cautious chap, who reminds me of myself
in some respects, thought they’d better shut up the
entrance, which they did, I haven’t a doubt. And how
would they shut it up ? They wouldn’t need to close
it up with masonry necessarily. They’d only have to
put in a charge of whatever dynamite or T. N. T.
they had handiest and blow it up. They’d probably
do that right at the entrance into the cliff. So all
you have to do is to find a place that looks as if an
explosion might have taken place, and — there you are,
gentlemen, just walk right in and help yourselves.
There will have been little, if any change, in the cliff
from the way they left it, because there have been no
storms or changes in temperature since.”

After a silence Billy concluded: “Therefore, I vote
against you fellows and in favor of myself. That little
indent you are so fond of, Freddie, my child, is solid
rock like the rest of the cliff. The place where the
explosion took place wouldn’t be solid rock. There’d
probably be a talus reaching well up the cliff.”

“Billy,” said Harding with a quizzical grin, “you
aren’t so dumb, are you?”

“0, no.”

In a moment the three had put on their outside suits
again, let themselves out through the airlock, and began
re-examining the cliffs. A hundred feet eastward far-
ther along the cliff than they had searched before,
they found a talus extending nearly to the top of the
rocky rim.

“I vote for this,” said Upton.

“And I,” echoed Harding.

“Unanimous,” announced Larry. “Let’s go back and
give the old boys a chance to finish their figures, and
when they get through, we’ll get our little guns out
and show them where to shoot.”

“We have demonstrated mathematically,” Mastono
told them, “that the direction that was north at the
time the records were buried would be some distance
east of what is now north. Just how far east we
cannot say with certainty by reason of the doubt as
to the date ; but it would be some distance east.”

T HE three younger men looked at Mastono admir-
ingly. “You are right, gentlemen,” grinned
Harding. “Quite right. We have done some figuring
ourselves. Amongst us three and you two I think we
have the place.”

Cautiously, standing well back, they trained two dis-
integrating torches on the cliff at the point determined
on, and the debris of the talus melted as if it had been
butter and disappeared. Soon they had uncovered what
gave every appearance of having once been an under-
ground entrance. Fifty or sixty feet in, the torches
swept away the last barrier, and the cavern yawned
before their eyes. Mastono would have rushed head-
long in at once, but Harding restrained him.

“Wait, my friend. Remember the beasts. The
cavern may well be full of them. I suggest we all go
back near the ship and wait. These beasts probably
don’t need much air, and they might come rushing out.
Eventually the cold would get them, of course, but
that might be after they’d got us.”

Harding broke off with a sharp hissing intake of
breath as confused sounds came issuing out of the
cavern. “Back! Quick! Run for the ship!”

Without stopping to look back so much as once, they
made a mad rush for the ship, never slacking until they
were safely shut inside.

They had been not an instant too soon in quitting
the mouth of the cavern, for the hell’s brood that came
boiling, squirming, and seething, snarling, hissing and
croaking, out of the ancient place, was none such as
a man would care to be in company with. As they
debouched upon the ancient shore, they spread forward
fanlike to a distance of several hundred feet, their
forward motion slowing perceptibly, and their fright-
ful bedlam diminishing, as they came on into the with-
ering cold of the airless surface. Then their forward
movement ceased altogether, their horrible din quieted,
and they became an abominable mass of swirling,
squirming, billowing obscenity, their demoniac voices
protesting more and more weakly, until it was no more
than a ghastly moaning hiss. For a while there was
an occasional flip of a slimy tentacle, the painful rais-
ing and questing from hide to side of a serpent’s head,
or the rolling of some elephantine torso, as their bodies
shriveled visibly.

At last there was no more movement or sound, and
after gazing a while in frozen horror, the passengers
of the Altarasanna prepared to proceed with the ven-
ture. They had a grisly task before them. No human
being could have steeled his soul to so much as step
into the outer fringe of the hideous collection, harm-
less as they had quite evidently now become; and to
go past the scattering fringe up into the thickening
mass which entirely choked the entrance, was a thing
unthinkable. The mess must be cleared up before any-
thing further could be done, and they prepared to go
at it with their two disintegrating torches.

It was Professor Merriam who halted them. “Wait,”
he fairly screamed. “I beg of you to wait a moment!
We must take pictures. They may be of inestimable

552

AMAZING STORIES QUARTERLY

benefit in dealing with these things. And think of the
interest of science. Wait, I beseech you, until I can
get a camera.” He was already on the way to the
ship as he spoke, and in a few moments had returned
with a camera, and had begun snapping picture after
picture, the objects which appeared the most interest-
ing. At last he was satisfied after he had taken half
a hundred views, and permitted them to proceed. Mas-
tono said that the pictures should be transferred to
the permanent records and made a part of the future
history regarding the beasts — if, indeed, there were
any survivors on Arelli to make any more history.

As the disintegrators were turned upon them, the
creatures disappeared into nothingness, only a slight
cloud of vapor rising from where they had been, forced
upward by the pressure of the torches. Slowly they
cleared a wide pathway through, more and more slowly
as they approached the entrance. It required some
time to clear out the entrance, and when it had been
done, and they began to penetrate into the cavern
itself, the work was still a herculean one. It seemed
as if the ancient cavern must have been filled full with
the things. But at last they were through to the free
space of the rock floor, and put their torches aside.
Even then Harding counseled extreme caution in pro-
ceeding forward.

“Keep together in a bunch,” he warned them, “and
don’t rush ahead. Let’s stand here and look around
first. There is no telling what may still be inside here.
There may be a passage leading down below, and no-
body knows what might be coming up yet.”

“Yes, yes. You are right, Freddie, my boy. Yes.
In fact I had been thinking of that myself. The cavern
must have been warmed to some extent from some
source, otherwise the creatures could not have existed
in here any more than they could outside. Yes. They
would have frozen solid half a million years ago. I
suggest we endeavor first to find out about this pas-
sage by which they came up from their dens proper,
which must lie far below here.”

“I suggest, however,” put in Billy Upton thoughtfully,
“that if they mean to come up and see us they’d better
be humping it, or they’ll be too late. However it may
have been before we opened it up, I fancy this hole
in the ground is now as cold as it is outside, which
wasn’t good for their health. So I hardly think there
is anything more to fear from them. Whatever pas-
sageway they may have had to their home town is
apt to be about 5,000 below zero by this time.”

This seemed likely, and they ventured forward, tak-
ing the precaution, however, to lug their disintegrating
torches along in case of unexpected stray visitors who
might be more hardy than their brethren.

The cavern was a large one. All that the direc-
tions had said was that the records were “buried under
a great crystal pillar.” The pillar might be in any part
ef the cavern. Therefore, after looking about a little
more, nothing appearing to threaten them, it was de-
cided to separate into two companies. Mastono and
Harding went one way, holding the light and Harding
carrying oneof the disintegrating torches; and Merriam,
Larry, and Billy Upton went the other way, Upton and
Merriam carrying lights and Larry carrying the other
torch. Thus they made the complete circuit of the
cavern’s edge, examining it as far as their lights ex-
tended toward the center, and met on the other side,
without finding any trace of the crystal pillar. Mas-
tono’s face was a picture of disappointment, and his
eagerness had slowed to a certain nervous tension.
Probably no one else in the company realized what it
meant to him to find the records — unless it might be
Merriam.

“We’ll turn around, now,” said Merriam, “and go

back through the center. It may be that the crystal
pillar is in the center.”

AND so it was — almost at the exact center. The
IX. crystal pillar consisted of one enormous crystal
fully six feet long, fixed on end in the rock floor. Un-
doubtedly the records had been found. Remained the
task of unearthing them from their eon-long burial.
This was a matter for care. If the disintegrating
torches were turned straight down through the floor
of the cavern, the records might be injured or de-
stroyed. There was no telling in what manner they
had been buried, nor what space their crypt might oc-
cupy; neither had they any way of estimating how
deeply they lay beneath the floor. But the torches
were the only means they possessed of excavating into
the rock. Any other way might require many erros and
ennas. They therefore selected a spot about ten feet
each way from the pillar*, and began two experimental
holes. When these were down what they deemed a suf-
ficient depth, without encountering anything, they
began to work toward the center from them. They had
not gone far when they encountered a solid metal wall
on each side of the pillar. Again they paused to consult
about the proper method of gaining entrance to the
metal vault. Harding was for boring a hole through
at a venture; but the old centenarian was childishly
fearful that such a course might injure even the
smallest atom of the precious contents of the vault.

At any rate, it was necessary to recharge the torches,
which had grown noticeably weak, and advisable to look
over their surface suits and refill their charges, and it
was apparent there were other matters to be consid-
ered. Again it was the comical but really thoughtful
Billy Upton, who had been thinking deeply.

“Since there was air on the surface when these
records were buried,” he remarked, with a malicious
look in the direction of Larry, “there would possibly,
even probably, have been air in the record vault —
although I realize it may have been removed at the
time or escaped since. If there was air in it, there
may still be, and if so, the inner pressure might cause
an explosion if we were to remove the rock from around
the vault, particularly if the air inside became heated
to any extent from the use of our torches. We might
all be blown clear to — to Marelli, not to mention the
records being ruined.”

“That is true,” allowed Harding. “What do you
propose, Billy?”

“Why, I suggest punching a hole through the metal
wall of the vault first. We could do that by placing
a pointed bolt against the wall and a light charge of
explosive to drive it through, with a fuse to give us
time to get out of the cavern, just in case anything
should happen.” He glanced at Mastono. “Just a
light charge, you understand, friend Mastono, which
wouldn’t hurt a fly inside, but would make a hole to
let out any pressure that may be inside.”

This seemed the best method available, and the exe-
cution of it brought no disastrous consequences, and
they removed enough of the rock about the vault to
permit enlarging the hole so a man could crawl through.

With instinctive delicacy they all drew back and
glanced at Mastono. It was his world and his records,
and his undoubted right of first entry. Merriam would
be the next, since all worlds and all things are the step-
children of the scientist.

The old Arellian eagerly, and with quite a little
solemnity, thrust his head through the opening, then
withdrew it quickly to put his light in first and his
head second. Again there was the thought of caution.
Who could say what might be inside a vault sealed
for hundreds of thousands of years?”

THE TERRORS OF ARELLI

553

“Better look it over well before you go in,” warned
Harding. “There might be snakes, or — almost any-
thing, in there.”

But after no more than a glance round the vault,
Mastono crawled in, beckoning Merriam after him. The
place was no more than ten or twelve feet square and
as high. There were a few stone shelves around the
walls, with a few small cabinets like the one contain-
ing the directions. That was all. At a glance it seemed
a short and inadequate climax to their long and com-
plicated hopes and preparations. The vast age of the
place seemed in decency to demand a more pretentious
realization. But there they were — the hundred or so
rusty looking cabinets, quite unimposing for all their
age and their expected miracles of content.

Well, the thing was accomplished, and there was noth-
ing to do now but remove them. Nothing was to be
gained by merely looking at their exterior. So Hard-
ing began to hand them out to Larry, who in turn
passed them up to Upton to load on the small vehicle
for transfer to the Altarasanna. They were not very
heavy, save with age and dignity, weighing not more
than probably twenty or thirty pounds apiece — as
pounds would be figured on Marelli. Two loads took
them.

With no more than brief backward glances, when
all had been done, the ship was put in flight for
Copernicus, where without incident it landed three
lovers into the waiting arms of three anxious women,
and two others into a fever of preparation for the
translation of the precious voices of the distant past.

It also landed them into the very midst of a situa-
tion that every erro was becoming more dark and crit-
ical for the future of Arelli. The King had not been
present to greet them on their return, interested as
he undoubtedly was, and sure as he would otherwise
have been to do so. Altara explained that he was occu-
pied in conferences with a number of ambassadors from
the various more important states, or craters, of Arelli.
Insistent as any local governor might have been to run
his own part of the state in his own way during normal
times, all alike in troublous times demanded of their
overlord the King instant and omniscient advice and
assistance. They demanded what they themselves
lacked, adequate wisdom to subdue and banish their
menace; success where they had failed. They were in-
clined to thrust all responsibility upon the King’s
shoulders, with all blame for past and present failures,
reserving unto themselves only whatever credit might
be assumed to accrue that things were not worse.

The people of a large number of the small and back-
ward outlying crater communities had been strangled
out of existence. In some cases a few had made good
their escape to more fortunate places; in some cases
none. Many inhabitants of the larger craters were
gradually being driven into a corner by the beasts. All
were suffering more or less. Straggling groups of ref-
ugees had soon begun to center upon Kepler and Co-
pernicus, where conditions were the best. These had
represented the well-known type who always flee at
even the distant whisperings of danger. These rivu-
lets had been steadily broadening and deepening into
a great human river, that threatened to overflow the
capital.

There every man and woman who could by any means
be spared from the work of food production was pressed
into the building and equipping of the surface habita-
tions. Of these dwellings thousands had been added
to thousands, until the whole available space on the
crater’s floor was filled, from the edges of the central
Altara Lake and the horticultural area to the very
vertical line of the precipitous surrounding cliffs. The
agricultural area must not be encroached on. There

was no telling when food would be at a premium. Fully
half of the sublunar levels of Copernicus had been
vacated, and in such of these as were still safe the
refugees were installed as fast as they arrived, and set
to work at once producing their own food by the most
intensive processes known. As the number of the ref-
ugees increased, there were not houses for them, above
or below ground. They lived in the open places of the
caverns and slept on the ground. This was no great
hardship, however, as the temperature was warm and
uniform.

K EPLER, ruled by the King’s able brother, was the
blue ribbon community of Arelli. It had been
made absolutely clean of the terrors from top to bottom,
and was apparently being kept so. Its normal popula-
tion had been about 250,000 — much smaller than that
of the capital. Its surface dwellings had also filled the
surface of the crater, and were themselves filled. Its
vacated underground spaces were also crowded with
refugees, until it was housing three times its usual
250,000. The nearly 400,000 normal population of the
capital had become close to a million.

The mysterious Hyginus Valley, near Copernicus on
the west, 95 miles long and only a mile and a half
wide, and of unknown origin, was in excellent strategic
shape for defense, was under capable governorship, and
holding its own against the terrors. It, too, was
crowded above and below the ground.

Riccioli, far to the east and near the vast Grimaldi,
had become, through some circumstances that no one
understood, the focus of such a savage attack, that it
had had to be abandoned. Its surviving population had
crowded into Grimaldi, along with that of other small
abandoned craters still further eastward.

Everywhere the people of the smaller craters cen-
tered into the nearest large ones, until gradually there
came to be a few great centers of population instead
of many small ones.

At the old capital, Ylisae, the evil politician Uf-
fuldo, father of the infamous son Ullo, who had made
a nearly successful attempt to carry off Princess Al-
tara, had been thoroughly set down and the place put
under the rule of a committee of governors, on account
of its central location. It was barely holding the beast
hordes in check and was threatened with lack of food
for its great and growing population.

Great Tycho, at the south pole, had followed the
example of the old capital, and though crowded to over-
flowing, was doing fairly well. Bailly and Clavius, on
account of their great size, had to be left to the beasts,
and the people had to flee to Blancanus and Tycho;
the former, having recovered from its earlier distress,
had gradually pressed back the enemy.

Looking over the situation generally, it was hard for
the King and his faithful Captain Tullos to say
whether Arelli as a whole was gaining or losing its
fight. Certain it was that though some of the larger
craters were able to hold their now teeming popula-
tions fairly safe for the moment, hundreds of others
had been completely overrun and abandoned. It seemed
as if the beasts, like able generals, were cleaning up
the fringes so that their flanks would not be harassed
in the gigantic warfare to come against the coveted
larger centers. What the result of that final warfare
w T ould be they could not yet determine. The thing that
had finally become a fact was that Ylisae, Tycho and
Blancanus in the south polar region, Grimaldi in the
east, with Kepler, Copernicus, and the Hyginus Valley,
supplemented in some measure by Ptolemy, Herschel
and a few others, now held practically the whole sur-
viving population of Arelli, which before had been dis-
tributed in a more or less scattering manner over sev-

554

AMAZING STORIES QUARTERLY

eral hundreds of craters. Certain it was, also, that
that population could not possibly be more than seventy-
five per cent of what it had been just before the out-
break, and possibly not more than fifty per cent.

This was the situation at the time of the return of
the Altarasanna from the salvaging of the ancient
records. And then came a comparative lull in the
struggle. In several places it was reported that the
aggressions of the terrors had somewhat abated. But
whether Arelli was really beating them as a whole, or
whether it should be taken as a sort of grim warning
of worse days to come — that was what no one could tell.

In such situation the provinces that were holding out
had sent their ablest men to Copernicus for advice and
counsel with each other and with the King. These
were the conferences that the passengers of the Altara-
sanna had found in session on their return. As soon
as the King knew of their return he sent to ask the
four Tellurians and Mastono to come to the council
chamber in the old royal quarters. Dannie Marston
and Gaston Perot had gone somewhere below where
Captain Tullos had been sent for on account of some
critical phase of the unremitting struggle to clear the
lower levels of the terrors. Mastono begged, on the
ground of fatigue, that he and Merriam be excused
from attending the council for a while, promising to
come later ; and he and Merriam went off together.

No time was taken to present the Tellurians to the
individual ambassadors, of whom there were half a
hundred assembled. The King merely called the visitors
to him, shook their hands, and told the gathering who
they were.

“Gentlemen,” he said, putting a hand on Harding’s
shoulder, “this is my son, Prince Frederick Xerxes
Harding, of Marelli, the chosen husband of Altara, Prin-
cess of Arelli. Prince Frederick is chiefly responsible
for the renewal of communication between our planet
and Marelli.” He next put an arm around Larry’s
shoulders and smiled down at him fondly. “This is my
very good friend, Larry, of Marelli, whose heart is as
golden as that of Sanna of Arelli, with whom he is
mated.” Then he turned to Billy Upton and stood look-
ing down at him with a quizzical smile. “This is Billy
Upton, of Marelli, gentlemen, whose mind is as keen
as his face is genial.” His face suddenly turned grave
again. “Let us go on with our work, gentlemen. We
are fortunate to have these friends of Marelli with us.
They have already been of great help. I am sure you
will be glad to hear from them when they have recov-
ered from the weariness of their journey into the Lai
Estoti, where they have been with Mastono and the
able Professor Merriam, also of Marelli. This journey,
Prince Harding informs me, has resulted in the find-
ing and bringing back to the capital the ancient records
of our people, buried there for perhaps many iltellos,
Mastono and Merriam are even now working at the
translation of them and I suppose will not stop until
it is done.” He turned to Harding. “Freddie, my
son, do you wish to say something now?”

Harding arose. “Gentlemen of Arelli, let me assure
you of the cordial friendship of Marelli, and our sym-
pathy in your troubles. All that we can, we will
do to help you. I shall be glad to meet you all per-
sonally when there is time. You have work to do now,
I know.”

B ILLY UPTON and Larry looked at each other.

“After you, old toppie,” smiled the former with a
slight wave of the hand, and Larry arose with hesita-
tion and spoke without greeting. “I am glad to say,
statesmen of Arelli, that on our journey just ended we
met a few hundred of the beasts when we entered the
cavern to bring out the old records. They are dead,

and we are alive, as you see, though it was not we who
killed them. But we have learned something from the
adventure, and I assure you they are not to subdue your
beloved Arelli, but Arelli is to subdue them. I will not
take your time now, as I see from Billy Upton’s face
that he is going to make a very long speech.”

It is not known, but only surmised, why King Altona
of Arelli smiled a peculiar smile, by no means free
from pleasure, when the genial and sometimes flippant
Billy Upton arose to speak to the grave and dignified
ambassadors.

“It is but fair to my friends Prince Harding and
Prince Larry to inform you,” he began, “that they are
both princes in their own home towns, or — anywhere
you may chance to meet them, erro or enna, Copernicus
or San Francisco. Some day you will go to Marelli
and see, for look you, men of Arelli, the day is right
at hand when you will eat your — er — mush and grape-
fruit on Arelli and your soup to nuts on Marelli.
Great ships will flash you there in the space of an erro
or an enna — your ships, they will be, and ours. The
two worlds are already become one, for the two citi-
zens who will arrive at Copernicus soon, will never be
able to say whether they are the more of Arelli or
Marelli. These will be the first heralds of a great
interplanetarian citizenship to come, and in their
names I pledge you everything Marelli has if you shall
require it.”

“Ah! My friend of Marelli!” cried an old ambas-
sador, springing up and coming forward as Billy Upton
paused, “those are good words. May I shake your
hand after your custom of Marelli?” Upton gave the
ambassador a firm and cordial clasp, and then gave the
same to the King, who had arisen with tears in his eyes.

“Go on! Go on, Billy Upton!” cried another.

“Yes, Yes, we would hear more,” said another.

Others were on their feet waving their arms.

“Thank you,” went on Upton easily, “they are good
words, and would be whoever might chance to say them,
because they are good ivords. Now, about these beasts:
I would not worry too much about them if I were you.
They have taken many of our cities, and in doing so
they have sealed their own doom.” He paused a
moment.

“We do not understand,” said one.

“Just this: when these people fled from their homes,
I don’t suppose they stopped to shut their doors, do
you?” The ambassadors looked at each other, puzzled.
“No, I don’t think they did. And about the first thing
the beasts probably did after the people left was to
go outdoors and take a breath of fresh air. Well, by
that time the power ceilings were gone, I expect, through
the stopping of the machinery, and — what do you think
the brutes got then ?”

There was a silence. Then “Ah!” breathed the old
ambassador who had taken Upton’s hand. “Ah! That
is so!”

“My God!” (or the Arellian equivalent) said two
others. “That is true, friends!”

The King was heard to draw his breath sharply as
Upton continued. “Tomorrow a child could walk
through every one of those abandoned craters and not
a hair of his head be harmed — Riccioli, Bailly, Clavius,
Evas, Esoh, and a hundred of the other outlying craters,
are safe today. All you have to do is to send some —
er — scavengers, to clean up the mess, and their people
can return without fear. The people saved their
homes in abandoning them, and unless I am more mis-
taken than I think I am, it won’t be ten erros until
their attacks will subside in all the other places, and
there will never be such a thing as a beast seen or
heard of on Arelli again.”

The quick-thinking ambassadors had followed Upton

THE TERRORS OF ARELLI

555

to the end, in spite of the fact that he had interlarded
his remarks with an occasional English word when he
did not know the Arellian synonym, and when he sat
down there was an uproar as the ambassadors, casting
dignity to the winds, clamored forward to greet this
man who had so genially and yet so profoundly cap-
tured the situation.

The King fairly took Billy Upton into his arms, and
Larry cried, “Bravo, Billy! Bravo! You’re sure the
something’s something, or whatever the hell it is. Good
old Billy!”

Harding proudly slapped his back. “Why, Billy, you
damned old idiot ! I never even thought of it ! Certainly
they’re dead. Why, you — you damned old — old idiot!”

“Shut up, Freddie, olcheese, and let me outa here. I
want to — to ask Mercedes something.”

“Same here, kid,” seconded Larry; and to the King,
“Excuse us, will you, sir?”

The two dashed out, followed close, albeit more dig-
nifiedly, by Prince Harding, who desired to say some-
thing to the Princess. The gathering quieted, and as
soon as he could be heard, the same old ambassador
who had greeted Upton was on his feet.

“Your Majesty, I have the honor to suggest that some
fitting mark of our esteem be conferred on these most
excellent men of Marelli, who have assisted us so
greatly, and upon their mates. We have no way of
honoring our beloved Princess Altara more highly than
she is already honored, but I ask Your Majesty to
bestow on these others the honorary titles of Princess
and Princesses of Arelli, and to have appropriate entry
made in the royal records.”

The King nodded and smiled. “If there is no objec-
tion I will be glad to do so; and the honor will be
extended, upon their arrival to the two expected joint
citizens of Arelli and Marelli.”

Amid hearty cheers for the expected interplanetarian
citizens, there being no further business, the council
decided to call it an erro.

On the morrow there was more business for the good
ships Altarasanna and Terraluna. No less than flying
to the abandoned craters with a passengering mingled
of both worlds. They found it true as Billy Upton
had so shrewdly guessed. In the panic, the airlocks
had not been closed. The beasts had “gone outdoors
to take a breath of fresh air.” The neglected machin-
ery had caused the protective power ceilings (where
there had been any) to fall, and the beasts had met
the same fate as at their exit from the cavern of the
ancient records. There could be no doubt that the dis-
aster to the beasts had extended to the lowest levels,
for even where local tunnels were provided with means
of sealing the levels apart, no one had stayed their
panic-stricken flight to close them. Indeed, the very
thing that had proved the salvation of Arelli might,
except for the precautions in sealing of all tunnels from
abandoned craters, have proven the death of all; for
subsequent investigation proved that the through tun-
nels had lost their atmosphere right up to the points of
sealing, and but for the seals there might have been no
air left in all sub-Arelli. Beyond all doubt the failure
to close the doors behind the fugitives had saved Arelli.
It remained only to see if the extinction of the beasts
had extended to their ancient underground dens. No
exploration would be necessary. Events would prove
shortly, as Upton had suggested, whether this was true.
If the aggression of the terrors in the sealed lower
levels of the inhabited craters ceased, it would mean
that their underground dens were destroyed in toto.
In this case they would need only to recharge any places
from which the air had escaped, clear them of dead
beasts, and Arelli might go ahead and rehabilitate her-
self free from all fear for the future iltellos.

U PON the return of the ships and confirmation of
the good news, cars were at once equipped with
airtight protection, manned with workers likewise pro-
tected, and sent out through the tunnels with disinte-
grating torches to remove all signs of the ghastly
visitants from the hells of Arelli. Open tunnels were
sealed and recharged with air, and the fugitives were
soon on their way back to their homes.

It remained to see, however, whether the outrush of
the air from the underground quarters of the beasts
beneath the particular craters where they had been
found dead would extend to all of their underground
dens. If, as the general theory was, these dens were
all interconnected throughout the interior of Arelli,
then the air would rush out of them all, and the terrible
cold rush in, and the beasts would be destroyed through-
out all underground Arelli. If they were not so con-
nected, then there might still remain battle to do be-
neath the places where the beasts had escaped destruc-
tion. It would require some time to determine this
matter on account of various considerations. While
thus awaiting the outcome, all precautions would have
to be maintained.

Otherwise the activities of Arelli centering at the
crater of Copernicus went on as usual, and it was in-
evitable that the interests of old Mastono and Professor
Merriam should center largely in the translation of the
ancient records. This they set about at once. In fact,
as the King had strongly intimated he suspected, they
had been already at work on them, when they had
begged off from the meeting of the pan-Arellian council.

Mastono having already had experience in the matter
of working out the translation of the contents of the
old record cabinet of directions, they were fortunately
in position to get into the midst of the matter without
preliminaries. There was no difficulty in determining
the order in which the records ran, since not only had
they been stored in order in the ancient tavern, but
they bore plain marks on the outside of the cabinets
showing their order. This order was indicated by the
years covered by each cabinet of records. The only
trouble with this was that it was not known, nor did
they have any way of determining, unless the records
themselves should give them a clue, from what the
chronology dated. This they hoped to establish in some
way from the contents, which it turned out they were
able to do within reasonable limits of error. A few
thousand years in such vast periods of time did not
matter much.

They first determined that the logical method would
be to begin with the cabinet showing, the latest dating,
or that nearest their own era. This they did. The first
cabinet was tenderly set up, the necessary attachments
and connections made, and the two scientists having
placed themselves expectantly in the most favorable po-
sitions for seeing and hearing, Mastono tripped the
little switch that would set the mechanism in motion
to reel off the slender tapes on which the records had
been impressed hundreds of thousands of years before.

It will be understood that these records were exceed-
ingly compact. A very small cabinet would hold miles
of fine tape, and a mile of it might cover tens of thou-
sands of years, as each slender length would contain a
volume. There were found to be ninety-three of these
cabinets, so it seemed only reasonable that the two
scientists would have enough under any ordinary cir-
cumstances to occupy them for the next hundred years.
But the circumstances were by no means ordinary. The
two who had placed themselves at the herculanean task
knew how to handle it, as will be seen.

Mastono, then, tripped the little switch; the mech-
anism started as if it had been doing the like every day;
and without much preliminary scratching or complain-

556

AMAZING STORIES QUARTERLY

ing, a voice from the inconceivably remote past was
speaking to them as plainly as if it were of the current
day. The language was, of course, totally unfamiliar
to Merriam, and not precisely familiar to Mastono,
since language changes widely under the exigencies of
a hundred thousand years. It was the realization of
this that had caused the makers of Arellian records to
supplement the text by continuous and copious illustra-
tions, for pictures speak all languages alike.

It will be supposed that each of the men was inter-
ested the more intensely in the portion that dealt with
his own planet. It would have been strange if such had
not been the case. Every man who has a country loves
it the best; and it seems likely that every man who

has a planet, as most have, would always love it best,
too, even though it consist of many nations. We sup-
pose that a terrestrial American, or Englishman, or
Chinese, would appeal to the heart of a terrestrial more

The scenes that flashed
before them, made the
scientists draw back with
a gasp.

THE TERRORS OF ARELLI

557

intimately than a Jovian, or Martian, or Arellian Amer-
ican, or Englishman, or Chinese, even though we have
found Martians and Jovians and Arellians who wrap
themselves about the human heart strings as intimately
as another.

It would fall largely to the lot of Mastono, the cen-
tenarian, to interpret the textual and pictorial refer-
ences to Arelli, while Merriam might be supposed to
comprehend more readily those touching Marelli.

The opening sentences from the voice of the eons
long gone was only partly intelligible even to Mastono ;
but its message was at once made plain when pictures
began to flash in rapid succession upon the screen that
had constituted a part of the preparation of the scien-
tists. Clearly they were pictures taken on the surface
of Arelli. When it was desired to scrutinize any par-
ticular scene, the pressure of a button stopped the pas-
sage of the tape, and held the scene stationary on the
screen as long as they desired.

The date of the first picture was given as the year
842 of the 123rd miltesso from “the great transforma-
tion” — an unknown dating entirely, since they had no
idea what the great transformation might mean. Mas-
tono correctly surmised that the world “miltesso” was
the ancient form of “Iltello,” indicating a thousand
years. So that the year would have been the 122,842nd
year from the great transformation — whatever that
might be. The first scene they at once recognized as
the precise spot in the Lai Estoti where the records
had been found. There still remained some water in
the deep depression containing the mountain cone from
which they had reckoned the location of the entrance
to the ancient cavern. They were getting a start; and
although still unable to connect up their chronology
with any familiar calendar, they hoped by comparative
study and calculation to do so before they were through.

Their plan was to skip swiftly this first time through
the cabinets, to pick up the high lights, and go back
later to those things they might wish to examine with
care. To the following scenes of the first series they
gave, therefore, only cursory attention. They depicted
the last phases of the surface life on Arelli. There
were forests and other vegetation, most of which gave
evidence of gradual failing under the distress of un-
favorable conditions, doubtless rapidly becoming worse.
The ancient seas were bereft of their waters except in
some of the deepest places. The people bore much
the same appearance as themselves; clad differently,
it is true, but much the same people, and still living
in their surface cities, and in such agricultural areas
as still remained cultivatable.

T HEY passed quickly over the vocal comments,
which Mastono could tell gave general announce-
ment of the necessity of retirement from the general
surface to the craters, and thence to underground
dwellings, which were even then in preparation. In
fact, some of the smaller urban centers of the surface
had already been abandoned.

The record then passed on to detail in words and
pictures the family and political life of Arelli, or
Arrall, as it was then called, with brief accounts of
the educational and scientific advancement of the period.
The population of all Arrall was given as about half
a billion souls. They were separated at that time into
several independent nations, among which thei’e seemed
to have been the inevitable struggles for this, that,
and the other. There was no mention of air travel,
so far as they could understand the commentaries, and
certainly nothing like airships appeared in any of the
illustrations. They concluded that air travel had either
been discontinued on account of the thinning of the
atmosphere, or, what seemed more probable, the knowl-

edge of it had been lost from some cause not apparent.

The second cabinet bore the same dating as the first,
the year 122,842 from “the great transformation,” and
to “Merriam’s inexpressible delight dealt with Marelli,
then known as Massall. The very first scene put Mer-
riam into a quiver of eager expectation. He recognized
it as Europe of the Second Interglacial Epoch. Mastono
pressed the button and let it stand steady on the screen.

“That is undoubtedly the country we now
call ‘Europe’,” the little bald-headed scientist cooed.
“And the time fits in well with the Arellian history
we had in the first cabinet. The Second Interglacial
Epoch on Marelli may be placed somewhere between
250,000 and 375,000 years ago. So you can put the
retirement of your people from the surface, within
rather broad limits of error, of course, at about that
long ago, since the two cabinets bear the same dating.
The people who made these records showed intelligence.
They realized that there would be likely to be a great
deal of trouble placing the events, and in order to
assist they have placed under the same dating contem-
poraneous records of Arelli and Marelli, with the idea,
no doubt, that one might help the other out.

“The rather primitive-looking people shown here are
of what we have arbitrarily called the Heidelberg race.
The name Heidelberg means nothing, friend Mastono,
except that the first evidence of this race was a single
jawbone, unearthed near a place called Heidelberg, in
the country we call Germany. That’s all there is to
that. As a matter of fact there was some question
whether the race was really a human race as we un-
derstand the word. That is borne out by the people
appearing in this scene on the screen before us. They
certainly have a look of considerable intelligence, but
as you see the jaw is almost chinless — low forehead,
retreating. Very likely their speech was primitive, if
they had any at all. And yet the teeth shown by this
jawbone I speak of were distinctly human teeth.”

“In order to show so large an area,” suggested
Mastono, “this scene must have been taken in many
parts and a composite made of them, then rephoto-
graphed for this record.”

“Yes, yes,” agreed Merriam, “I suppose so. Yes.
I was wondering about that. But the composite agrees
well with our own conceptions of the topography of
Europe 250,000 or 300,000 years ago. What we call
the Mediterranean Sea” — Merriam indicated the lo-
cality — “did not exist. There were only some large
lakes, as you see here. In other words, during the
glacial epoch so much of the waters were frozen that
the seas were low everywhere. Then, when the glacial
times passed, and the ice melted, it infringed on the
land and narrowed the continents. Yes, yes. There
were only some large lakes, as you see here, where
the Mediterranean Sea no?/ lies. Europe extended
further to the westward. There were great inland
waters where are now what we call the Black Sea
and the Caspian Sea. This country at the north here
is now separated from Europe and cut up into what we
call the British Isles. Let’s see what the next one
has to say, friend Mastono.”

Mastono pushed the button and let another scene
show. Merriam examined it closely, puzzled at first.

“Why, that’s — good heavens! That must be Asia,
though different from our Asia of today. Yes, yes. And
an obviously advanced and enlightened civilization
there 300,000 years ago! Yes. Well, well! Buildings
and cities and great ships on the seas. This will be
a surprise to some of my brethren on Marelli. My
stars, yes. No doubt it was some of these people who
subsequently migrated into Europe later. Well, let’s
shoot along. We can come back to these.”

“Where does this Heidelberg race stand with you,

558

AMAZING STORIES QUARTERLY

friend Merriam? Where do you place it as related
to your other early races?”

“Well, all the knowledge we have, practically, of the
prehistoric peoples is limited to Europe. For example,
this advanced civilization we just saw in Asia is en-
tirely new to me. In Europe we have, beginning with
the most recent and going back — we have the Cro-
Magnon race, an intelligent race, with as full mental
potentialities as we ourselves, but without much appli-
cation of it as yet; living out of doors in the shelter
of natural caves. Place that, very roughly, at 25,000
to 40,000 years ago. Then the next we know anything
much about is the Neanderthal race, also in Europe,
you understand. Call that 50,000 to 75,000 years ago.
Then comes the pre-Neanderthaloid and Piltdown folk,
at about. — well, say 150,000 to 200,000 years ago. And
the next step takes us to the Heidelberg race, which
we had on the screen here— 250,000 to 375,000 years
ago. All those figures may be wide of the mark, you
know; but I’d say it would be fairly safe to place
the Heidelberg somewhere between 200,000 and 400,000
years ago. And when taken in comparison with your
Arellian chronology, I’d rather say between 250,000
and 400,000.”

“You can probably place your races since the Heidel-
berg from our later records, then.”

“Yes, yes. I hope so. Yes. I certainly do hope so.
Well, then the next step back is the farthest we on
Marelli have been able to get yet. That is what is called
the Peiping or Peking man, or the Sinanthropus Pekin-
ensis, in what we call China, a very large, densely
populated, and under-advanced country in Asia. Esti-
mates, such as they are, place the Peiping Man as far
back as a million years. How nearly accurate the esti-
mate is I’m sure I can’t say. You understand I’m
primarily an astronomer. Probably it’s as old as a
million years — perhaps much older. The race3 I’ve
mentioned furnish a fairly representative list of all
we know about the prehistoric races of Marelli. Mind
you, that’s all in Europe, except the Peiping race.
What was in other parts of Marelli concurrently we
know very little about as yet. We know there were pre-
historic peoples in other parts, but we haven’t them
very well traced yet. We’ll have to wait until more
excavations are made.”

“Unless we can learn more about them from these
records,” suggested the centenarian.

“Yes, yes, to be sure. Of course. Well, let’s see
what we have next here, then.”

T HEKE were then several records dealing with con-
ditions on Arelli. They ran back 500,000 years, as
nearly as they could tell, which wasn’t very near,
showing the surface entirely peopled, the seas filled
with water, and the hundreds of thousands of craters
which form so prominent a feature of Arelli’s surface
entirely missing. The people lived in cities of great
size and grandeur, and the civilization was obviously
extremely high. There were swarms of ships on the
waters, vast transits on the land, multitudes of air-
ships, and some sort of contrivance which men at-
tached to themselves, floated up into the air, and darted
swiftly about. Evidently this was much more than a
mere gravitor. Most surprising of all, however, at the
very end of the record, was a map which left no
possible doubt of representing travel routes between
Arelli and earth. By going over the record again more
carefully they found the interplanetarian ships them-
selves resting on the surface.

As the hour was nearing when they must discontinue
their work for the time being, they skipped over the
remaining cabinets to glance hastily at the last two.
These bore no dating. They supposed one might deal

with Arelli and the other with earth; and in this they
were not disappointed.

They ran the Arelli record first, and found it to con-
sist of nothing but pictures — no comments. The scenes
that flashed before them made the two scientists draw
back with a gasp and look at each other in speechless
bewilderment. The pictures spoke more plainly than
words could possibly have done.

The first scene was a drawing, showing a large heav-
enly body, evidently a sun — the sun, they soon saw.
Three planets were shown with their orbits about the
sun indicated. Around the outer one — Marelli, they
guessed — was traced an orbit, containing a satellite at
one point, and near the satellite was an excellent out-
line of a human hand, with the index finger pointing
to the satellite.

“Plainly our own sun, with Mercury, Venus, and
Marelli, and circling the latter, Arelli.”

“And according to the finger, this record is to deal
with Arelli.”

They nodded agreement.

The next showed a steaming sea in whose waters
and on whose shores sported enormous animals as
weird and terrible as could have been hatched from
the brain of a madman. Then there were several areas
of land. It was barren and shimmering with heat.
It, too, had a varied collection of monsters. There
were no forests ; there was no vegetation ; there was no
man, nor anything in the least resembling him. Then,
as if to say, “See ? It is the same all over this sphere,”
many other like land and water areas were held up
before them.

Followed the image of a sphere in the distance so
completely shrouded with clouds of hot steam that not
a foot of the surface could be seen.

The remainder of the record was a blank!

Mastono and Merriam sat looking at each other
for a time in benumbed astonishment. Merriam spoke
first, after opening and closing his mouth several times
without emitting a sound.

“The beginning.” he whispered hoarsely. “No hu-
man being on all Arelli.”

Mastono spoke after another silence. Strangely, he,
too, spoke in a hushed voice, as in the presence of
the dead — or a spirit. “And taken — by whom?”

“By the people of Marelli, of course.”

Mastono first nodded and then shook his head — both
in silence, and in a moment, “Perhaps.”

The younger man stirred, took a deep, hoarse breath.

“Come. The other one, now. Perhaps ”

They lifted the cabinet down and placed the re-
maining one in position before the screen.

“This will explain the other — this one of Marelli.”
Again the old man made the same peculiar ambiguous
movement of nodding and shaking his head. “Perhaps.”
If the showings on Arelli had left the two men in
amazement, those now shown on Marelli left them even
more so. There was the same manner of indicating
the planet to be dealt with; then the same steaming
seas with their enormous weird creatures; areas of
hot land with its beasts; barren lack of anything like
vegetation; the same complete absence of the supreme
animal, Man! And, finally, the same representation
of the steam-encircled sphere from a distance.

The same blank remainder of the record.

They sat silent a long time. At last Mastono made
a gesture of futility, disconnected the cabinet, and set
it with the others, and they went out together.

T HE erros and ennas came and the erros and ennas
fled on Arelli, as man’s puerile efforts at timing
come and flee on the myriads of inhabited planets of
our universe and all universes. The beastly invasion

THE TERRORS OF ARELLI

559

was being held in check everywhere now, and to those
craters that had been abandoned and retaken, the
hordes did not come again. In the progression of
time, albeit a little longer time than Billy Upton had
predicted — the force of the aggression stood still, then
lightened a little, and finally ceased altogether, as the
ghastly swarms forgot all else in their gasping agonies
in the frigid and airless places and began to crawl
painfully back as near as they could get to their infernal
dens — to die.

The Terrors of Arelli were no more.

But at Copernicus and all the other inhabited places
the people refused to return to their underground dwell-
ings. The taste of the surface and the sunshine, the
lakes and the mountains, the black bowl with its stars
— the taste of these was sweet in their souls. No more
for them the deep-hewn tunnels and caverns, however
well lighted and commodious. They must be where
they could see Marelli — Marelli, the home of the gen-
erally beloved Billy and Mercedes Upton, the home of
the little bald-headed scientist whom they revered as
the only one that Mastono, the Sage of Arelli, had ever
been known to take into the innermost recesses of his
scientific old heart; Marelli, the home of the Prince
Harding, also much known as Prince Freddie, who had
taken to wife their beloved Princess of Arelli, who was
to bear him soon a citizen of two worlds; Marelli,' the
home of the genial and popular young Irishman, who,
like the Prince, had mated with Arelli, and whose union
likewise gave imminent promise.

“My child shall be a girl,” smiled the pretty little
Sanna, on whom the dignity of impending motherhood
sat with fascinating sweetness.

Larry looked at her in mute adoration.

“That it shall,” laughed the Princess of Arelli, “be-
cause my child must be a boy, so that he may some day
be the King of Arelli, and they are to wed when they
are of the wedding age.”

Prince Freddie winked at Larry and held his tongue,
as a man must in such case, Larry only venturing to
whisper clandestinely, “Faith, an’ what relation will
that make us, Mr. Harding?”

Sanna : “My child shall be born on Great Marelli.”

The Princess: “Mine must be born on Arelli.”

As for Mercedes Upton, she said no word, but her
eyes held a faraway look. Proving that Mercedes
Gonzales de Montiel y Santander y Upton could hold her
tongue and her counsel — even as the President of Peru
had once averred.

The Terrors of Arelli being vanquished, the ships
were preparing for their homeward flight, and the day
was irrevocably set for the takeoff. On account of some
pressing matters at Altara Mountain, Harding could
delay his going no longer, and Larry was eager to be
at work on plans for the new ships that were to ply
regularly between the home world and Arelli. So the
day had to be set for leaving.

And Altara and Sanna waited, eagerly expectant.

Waited. Waited. And in the event neither of them
got what she had avowed she would have, which, as
usual in things of the sort, mattered not the least,
being found at last to be the thing they had really
wanted anyway. For little Sanna gave birth to a boy
— a copy of herself but with the smiling Irish eyes
of the father; while the projected future King of Arelli
turned out a queen. Both were born on board the
Altarasanna, out in the ether, far from both worlds.

Merriam besought Mastono to go to Marelli with him,
but Mastono said he had so many important things to do
at home that he would have to postpone the trip, greatly
as he longed to make it. But being in the midst of a
hot argument with Merriam, which must be concluded,
he would step just a moment aboard for the purpose,
and the two went into Merriam’s special quarters to
await the time for the takeoff. This was a small
inside room in the rear which Merriam had selected
for quiet.

In the end, the argument was concluded where it
began, and they had to leave it until another trip.

But, “There is one matter I must give some atten-
tion to, when I reach Marelli,” said Merriam, opening
another subject.

Mastono leaned forward expectant.

“Yes, yes. I had meant to mention it to you before,
my good friend, but I think there is time yet before
the ship starts. Some years ago — 1929, I believe, or
possibly 1930 or 1931, a Dr. Hans Hartman succeeded
in going down into the sea to a depth of 2,500 feet in a
diving apparatus of his own invention.” Mastono
leaned a little farther forward. “He discovered an
ancient city a few hundred feet down, possibly one
that had been built there when that part of the area
now covered by the Mediterranean Sea was a part of the
lowland country about what were then two large lakes.
I understand other cities have since been discovered
there, but for various reasons they have not yet been
explored to any extent. Now I was thinking there
might be records buried there which, if we could find
them” — etc., etc.

They were off on another lingual trek.

By and by Harding rapped, entered, and started in
surprise at the sight of the centenarian, who he had
not known to be on board. For did he not hear
Mastono say there was much to be done on Arelli?

“Is it time for me to get off, Mr. Harding?” asked
Mastono.

A ghost of a smile flitted over Harding’s face, but
he shook his head. “No, no. No hurry at all.”

When he had gone out and closed the door, he
grinned broadly, said something to Billy Upton, and
they both laughed.

“They never knew when we started.”

“Q, well, old cheese, what difference does it make to
a scientist where he is?”

With which they went about their several duties
chuckling as they went.

The End.

Back Issues of

Amazing Stories Quarterly

can be secured through

Radio-Science Publications, Inc., 381 Fourth Avenue, New York City

Dr. Immortelle

By Kathleen Ludwick

A GRADUAL and systematic degeneration of the body cells, with a corre*
uAi. sponding weakening of the brain cells , are what constitute old age and even-
tually bring death. When these cells are abnormally worn down by illness, for
instance, death comes without old age. All of us have heard of cases where almost
completely shattered cells were rebuilt and strengthened by the successful trans =
fusion of healthy, normal blood. It seems not unreasonable to suppose, there-,
fore, that a method of blood transfusion might be developed some time in the,
future that would aid the continuous rebuilding of body and brain cells enough
to materially increase the span of the individual life and avoid the seemingly j
inevitable advent of old age. But Miss Ludwick has woven an excellent story
around this theme, which we want ypu to enjoy first-hand.

Illustrated by MOREY

I HAVE to smile when I hear all this talk about
rejuvenation, after the story Victor de Lyle told
me, lying white and still on his cot in the hos-
pital overlooking the ocean, the changing expres-
sion of his great dark eyes, the only sign of life
about him. Dr. Immortelle beat them to it by about a
hundred and fifty years. Strange that his theory has
never occurred to any of our modern Occidental prac-
titioners, at least not until very recently. I saw an
item in the papers the other day that caused me to
suspect that a European scientist had either discov-
ered the secret for himself or perhaps gained his inspi-
ration from the writings of the ancient alchemists,
where no doubt Immortelle gained his.

I do not doubt that Methuselah lived a thousand
years; I do not doubt that, barring accident, it is pos-
sible for men to live ten thousand years, if they so
desire, or that men have done so and will do so again.
Perhaps in time, longevity like that wil! become so uni-
versal as to be taken for granted. The process of
rejuvenation will become as common as that of vaccina-
tion or the injection of the various serums and anti-
toxins that are now the fad of the hour. It may even
become compulsory by due process of law! It will fol-
low naturally that the Mrs. Sangsters of that day will
be heard with respect and no doubt Malthus will have
many statues erected to his memory.

Why shouldn’t we be rejuvenated? Most of us have
attained to but the vaguest conception of the meaning
of life w r hen “the black camel kneels before the gate.”
We hear a great deal about infant mortality, and it is
indeed a pitiful thing: but the mortality of the men-
tally immature is also appalling and infinitely more
tragic. But — goats’ glands! The thought that gives
one a feeling of nausea. I wonder if the results of that
same operation in olden times, as the historian says,
“shrouded by the mists of antiquity,” do not form some

basis for the legends of fauns and satyrs, those strange
beings, half man and half goat, which figure so largely
in Grecian and Latin mythology; and if, perhaps, the
increasing number of such monsters did not result in
the discontinuance of the operation? How shocking to
become the parent of such a being! Thank heaven,
there is another and a better way! At least it will be
better if there is wide and general knowledge concern-
ing it for the protection of humanity. To the dissem-
ination of such knowledge I now devote the last days
of my life. For myself I do not desire longevity. Such
a desire died in me when a Red Crop's tent was bombed
on the French frontier. Perhaps it was for this that
I came, alive, out of the hell of the Argonne!

I have none of the arts of the professional writer.
I know nothing of the rules of short-story writing. I
am just a plain mining engineer of mediocre ability,
wielding a geological pick and hammer more easily
than a pen and more familiar with mortars than meta-
phors. I could run a tunnel to tap a ledge in a por-
phyry dike easier than I can tell this strange tale. I
know more about secondary enrichments than I do of
the terminology and equipment of modern surgery,
but if the layman can grasp my meaning, I shall be
well content. Often, strangely enough, it would seen:,
it is the man in the street who anticipates the most
astounding scientific discoveries and grasps their tre-
mendous significance to humanity before his apparent
intellectual superiors. I realize that, as Walt Whit-
man said of his poems, “It w r ill do good — it may do
much evil also.” But I have faith to believe that the
good will far outweigh the evil.

I STARTED for San Francisco one May evening
from my parents’ home in the Santa Cruz Moun-
tains. It was a moonlight night, and there was little
traffic on the highway. The air was soft and mild and

560

fragrant with the scent of innumerable flowers in
the gardens of the homes that line the highway-
down the Peninsula for half-a-hundred miles. Even
the humblest home in this favored region may pos-
sess the never-ending joy of flowers the year around,
if nothing more than the humble petunia and the
cheerful scarlet geranium. Where on the face of
the globe, except on the shores of the Mediter-
ranean, is there another section so favored by na-
ture as that to which the inhabitants of the region
bordering on San Francisco Bay all pridefully refer
to as “The Peninsula”? It is the Mecca of the
whole Pacific Coast. From the north they “go
down to the Bay to get warm”; from the sunny
San Joaquin, and further south, they stream up to
the Bay “to cool off” !

Eastward towered the dark bulk of Mount Diablo.

. . . And the next instant
•we were falling through
space

To my right the waters of the lower bay flashed in the
moonlight. On my left rose green, gently sloping hills,
with their wealth of native shrubs and trees and their
plantations of eucalyptus, reminding me always of those
words of Howells’:

“The inscrutable sadness of the mute races of trees.”

I passed Palo Alto with its picturesque university
buildings, silent witness to the good that the tragedy
of one life may bring to countless multitudes; the salt
heaps of Leslie shone white as snow in the moonlight
as I passed. It pleased me to speculate on the appear-
ance of the section I was traversing, when it should
have been settled as long as London or Paris or Naples
has been.

And so I neared the twin cities of San Mateo and
Burlingame, the latter with its picturesque little rail-
road station. A couple of miles south of San Mateo
I almost ran over a woman carrying a suitcase. I
stopped and offered her a ride. Imagine my astonish-
ment when I found it was Linnie Chaumelle. I had
known her as a child in Idaho and she had grown into

561

562

AMAZING STORIES QUARTERLY

the loveliest woman I have ever seen. I had long ago
lost all track of the Chaumelles, but a few months pre-
viously had chanced to meet Linnie at the bedside of a
friend in a local hospital, where she was on duty as a
special nurse, and we had renewed our acquaintance.

It was the death of Linnie’s little brother, Vernon,
that precipitated the exposure of that strange and sin-
ister being, Albert Immortelle, and his assistant, Vic-
tor de Lyle, and caused them to flee from the Wood
River Valley “between two days.” Immortelle asserted
that the child had cut himself and he had dressed the
wound. Linnie’s uncle, an eastern surgeon of some
note, arrived unexpectedly for a visit about that time.
An infection developed and the child died. The child’s
uncle openly charged that the wound had been made
by a surgeon, and that Immortelle had been perform-
ing an experiment of some sort. The Chaumelles were
amongst the oldest residents of that section and highly
respected. Feeling ran high and threats of lynching
were openly uttered. Immortelle and his assistant
owned one of the first automobiles in that section.
They fled in the night, and in spite of the attention
excited by the appearance of autos at that time, noth-
ing was ever heard of them again until they reappeared
many years later in San Francisco.

The strangest feature of it was that my own father
stoutly affirmed that he had known Dr. Immortelle some
forty years before and he had appeared no older at
the time he left Wood River Valley. Dr. Immortelle
insisted that he was the son of the physician my father
had known, but father was positive in his identifica-
tion. And to complicate matters still further, my
grandfather declared that he had known this same
Immortelle sixty years before! That he recognized
him because of a peculiar triangular scar above one
eyebrow. Dr. Immortelle asserted that this scar was
a family mark — a matter of heredity: but my grand-
father had served in the Civil War and knew some-
thing about wounds himself. He laughed at the idea
that the scar was a hereditary mark. As he said, it
was very unlikely that a grandfather and son and
grandson should have been wounded in such a manner
as to result in the same identical sort of scar in the
same location. Moreover, the same explanation could
not apply to Victor de Lyle, Both my grandfather and
my father were willing to swear to his identity, so he
could not be explained away so easily. The people of
the camp were frankly puzzled. Both my grandfather
and my father were men of unquestioned veracity
whose sanity had never been doubted, hardheaded busi-
ness men of good judgment and common sense. There
was some mystery here. For those still living, it will
be solved if they chance to read this narrative.

N O words of mine could convey a just impression
of Linnie’s beauty and womanly grace. She was
the ideal nurse, with the physique and vitality that
every nurse should possess; and besides, she possessed
that dignity and nobility of character in which many
nurses are sadly lacking. To meet her in such a place,
at such an hour, staggering under the weight of a
heavy suitcase, and in what I might almost call a
disheveled condition, was inexpressibly shocking to me.
She was a woman of very even temperament, but she
appeared to be laboring under considerable excitement.
She asked me to drive her to her apartment in the
city: but after hearing a part of her story I turned
the car and drove back down the Peninsula — past Los
Gatos and through the canyon, to the ranch of my
parents in the Santa Cruz Hills, Linnie’s mother and
mine had been friends in those long-past Idaho days
and I knew my mother would give her the care she
needed. I left her there and returned to the city.

The afternoon papers were filled with the details of
the latest accident in El Diablo Canyon. Dr. Immor-
telle, a well-known local physician, and his associate,
Victor de Lyle, had been conducting a sort of orphan-
age or sanitarium at Crescent Beach. Starting for the
city at night, they had gone over the bank, into the
canyon, hundreds of feet below. The accident had
apparently been caused by their swerving the car to
avoid running over the body of a tramp that some
other car had struck and killed. Dr. Immortelle had
been killed instantly and shockingly mangled, and Vic-
tor de Lyle had been fatally injured.

One of the puzzling features of the accident had been
the presence of a woman’s footprints near the scene
of the tragedy; also the appearance of a young and
beautiful woman at a little station down the Penin-
sula, who had appeared greatly agitated at missing the
last local to the city and had started out afoot, carry-
ing a heavy suitcase, apparently with the intention of
walking to the next station two or three miles away,
to catch the interurban car whose terminus was at that
point. The theory was advanced that the footprints
had been made by a woman occupant of the car that
had struck the tramp; that, getting out of the ma-
chine, she had found the tramp to be fatally injured,
and because of this and possibly other compromising
circumstances, she had feared to inform the authori-
ties. The mystery was never solved to the satisfac-
tion of the police and detectives. Only one person be-
sides myself and parents, and the actual actors in the
tragedy, ever knew who made those footprints. That
was my wife. Linnie made them — Linnie, my other
self, who sleeps in a little French cemetery near where
the Germans bombed the Red Cross tent where she
tended the wounded and dying. I promised Victor de
Lyle that I would write this story as best I could, but
it would not have been given to the world in her life-
time had my wife lived. I am giving it to the world
now because the time for my own passing draws near
and I believe the world is ready for the wide and prac-
tical application of Dr. Immortelle’s method of rejuve-
nation.

* * »

1 WENT to see Victor de Lyle as soon as the physi-
cians would allow me to do so. There were certain
features of Linnie’s story that I desired to have cor-
roborated. Bit by bit, at the cost of the most excru-
ciating agony, the recital spread over many days, he
told me the most amazing story I have ever heard.
There have been times since when I have wondered if
I weren’t as locoed as any Idaho steer that has been
browsing on rattleweed: and then I remembered find-
ing Linnie on the highway, and what my father and
grandfather said about having known Immortelle so
many years before, and thereby regain faith in my own
sanity.

As a child I had always feared Dr. Immortelle, the
sinister-looking older man with the dark, compelling
eyes, despite his efforts to win my favor: but I had al-
ways liked his young assistant, De Lyle, with the ready,
sympathetic smile and gentle manners and the kind
brown eyes whose expression hinted of sorrow and
tragedy. I wrote down his story as he related it to
me day by day. Later I read it to him and he pro-
nounced the most vital portions correct in every detail.
Since then I have consulted various authorities, talked
with physicians and surgeons of international repu-
tation, and I am assured there is no serious technical
error in the tale.

I can differentiate between lancet and scapula, bis-
toury and canula; I can even discuss the merits of the
Aveling syringe as compared with the Collins appa-
ratus or Spencer’s instrument with the canula that

DR. IMMORTELLE

563

can be plunged directly into the blood-vessel. Also, I
have opinions as to the merits of arterial as opposed
to intravenous transfusion: but I had hard work
learning to twist my tongue around such terms as
phlebotomy, arteriovenous anastomosis, ambolism and
thrombosis: and it was a long time before I got hep
to the difference between Crile’s tube and Payre’s tube
and Brewster’s tube of German silver.

VICTOR DE LYLE’S STORY

“T WAS born a slave on a plantation in North Caro-
lina in the year 1745. No, not 1845. I was born
a mulatto. Perhaps you think my mind is affected
— but wait till I have finished! My father was a white
overseer and my mother a negress from the Guinea
Coast and as black as ebony. I am not delirious — I
am not insane — although I realize that it must be dif-
ficult for you to credit my statements.” Incredulously
I noted his soft, waving brown hair, his hazel eyes, his
skin that in health had been fairer than my own sun-
tanned hide. “You will believe me before my story is
ended” he said sardonically. I did.

“My old master was of French ancestry. Huguenot
stock. His wife’s people were Pennsylvania Dutch—
and Quakers. They were in one of the great treks from
Pennsylvania to North Carolina. She had not hesi-
tated to marry outside the faith in which she had
been reared when she met and fell in love with the
elder Immortelle. Perhaps it was from her that Albert
inherited that mystical tendency which influenced his
life so greatly.

“The elder Immortelle was the proprietor of a large
plantation. Naturally, he grew the products peculiar to
that region — tobacco, cotton, com and horses. He had
been educated for a physician but he had a passion
for stock raising. Being an altruist, his knowledge
of medicine and the crude surgery of the times was of
incalculable benefit to the inhabitants of that sparsely
settled region, and he gave of his time and services
as freely to the most wretched slave as to the haughty
proprietor of the most widely-stretching plantation.
He possessed one of the finest libraries in America at
that time. Among his books were some of the works
of the ancient Alchemists. They possessed a strange
fascination for his son. The boy would pore over
them for hours when other lads of his age were en-
gaged in riding or hunting or other local sports and
pleasures usual to youths of their years.

“Second only to his interest in books was the attrac-
tion animals possessed for him, especially his father’s
thoroughbred herd. Even as a child he was always
begging for pets. As he grew older, he would ask
for them under the condition that they were to be his
own exclusive property to do with as he pleased. His
father was greatly pleased by the scientific spirit which
Albert displayed in the breeding of the stock on the
plantation. My master possessed some of the best
specimens of horseflesh in that section. He fondly
hoped to see his son become one of the most famous
stock-breeders of his day. If he had suspected the
object which no doubt inspired his son even at an
early age, his emotions would have been of a different
character.

“Albert turned his earliest attention to the breeding
of poultry, cats, dogs, sheep and other comparatively
short-lived animals, that he might observe the results
of certain experiments on several generations. He was
especially impressed with the disastrous results of in-
breeding in relation to fecundity, and this formed the
very basis of the theory he was slowly evolving and
which was to be fraught with such tragic and mo-
mentous results to himself and countless others.

“Like most Southern gentlemen of that period, he
was fond of gaming, wine and women: but so great
was his self-control that I never knew him to overstep
the bounds of sobriety. In gaming and the pursuit
of women his methods were cold-bloodedly scientific;
but I believe that during his whole lifetime he really
loved only one woman.

“He was selfish and cruel, persistent in the pursuit
of any object. He was a ‘throwback,’ a reversion to
some strange type that one found it impossible to asso-
ciate with either parent. His father and mother never
understood him. He was an even greater puzzle to me
who saw more of him than anyone else did. We were
nearly the same age. His father had given me to him
for his own personal attendant. It seems strange to
you that I was ever a black negro chattel, doesn’t it?
But I assure you that it is true and I am able to verify
this statement in every respect. I was his almost con-
stant companion. For hours at a time he would pore
over certain problems whose existence I did not at that
time suspect, I have known few human beings capable
of such intense concentration.

“When we were young lads, he said to me once:

“ ‘Victor, when I will to move my hand, why is it
that my hand responds to my will? It must be for the
reason that every smallest particle of that hand has a
consciousness of its own!’ And this was long before
Dalton had advanced the atomic theory. We had never
heard of molecules or atoms, to say nothing of electrons !
He had no modern microscope to aid in confirming his
theories. No one at that time had ever witnessed the
marvelous division of cells, the orderly action of cen-
trosomes and chromsomes with which every student
of histology is today acquainted and takes as a matter
of course. His error lay in his theory of the manner
of reproduction of cells and yet, in spite of this, he and
I are, or were, living witnesses to the success of his
experimentation.

“He acquired all that the colonies had to offer at
that period in the study of medicine and surgery, then
pursued his studies in London and Paris and even in
other capitals of Europe. I remember once in Vienna —
but let that pass ! I accompanied him always and for
his own purposes he educated me. There never was the
same prejudice on the Continent against colored people
that has always existed here in America.

“XT 7"E were in Paris at the outbreak of the Revolu-

VV tionary War. A privateer nearly captured us
on our way home. I have often wished that it had sunk
us. Albert served through the war and I was w’ith him
as his personal attendant. Naturally, we were exposed
to great dangers. I feel certain now’ that he was by
nature cowardly, but his scientific bent of mind and
the goal he had in view were sufficient to counterbal-
ance his fears. He had the reputation of being one
of the most fearless and efficient surgeons in the Con-
tinental Army. Strange that a man should so deter-
minedly face death in his efforts to find a preventive
of Death itself! How many revolutionary heroes lost
their lives as a result of his experiments I have no
means of knowing, but the total was doubtless large.
I possessed a considerable knowledge of medicine and
surgery, myself, for those times, which was all a part
of my master’s plans. He took great pains to instruct
me in the anatomy of the nerves and blood-vessels.

“At the close of the war we settled in New York.
We took a house in a secluded suburban section. Im-
mortelle was then about forty years old and both of us
commenced to feel the effects of years of military ser-
vice with the inescapable hardships which would appear
so incredibly severe to modern soldiers. My master’s
step was not so springy as it had been.

564

AMAZING STORIES QUARTERLY

“Never have I seen a human being who dreaded the
approach of age as did my master. It was while we
were living in the New York house that he first
broached the subject that must have been uppermost in
his thoughts for years. I was astounded. His plans
to make practical application of his theories filled me
with horror, hardened to suffering as I had become
during the course of the war. I am by nature conserv-
ative. Also, I had not the depth of intellect of Albert
Immortelle, nor his scientific bent of mind. Even yet
I have not entirely overcome what I might call the
tendency towards inertia of the negroid race! And
the tendency was very strongly marked in me at that
time. Afterwards, I could recall many hints and innu-
endoes that should have prepared me for his disclosure
and I wondered that I had not grasped his purpose
sooner. Cleverly he dangled the bait before me.

“ ‘Remember,’ he would say when I wavered, ’only
accident can bar us from attaining any age we may
desire to reach. We can remain youthful and grow
increasingly attractive with the passage of the years,
instead of hideously ugly with wrinkled skins and
bald heads and the yellow snags of age in our mouths
that ever repel youth and beauty.’ (Our dentists at
that day were not capable of performing the miracles
of artistic dental surgery that we take as a matter of
course today.)

“Remember, he was my master — I his slave. Over
me he had the power of life and death. Never was
such a cunning tempter. He tempted me with the prom-
ise of freedom and the hope that through the gradual
loss of most of my own blood, covering a long period
of time, and the substitution of Caucasian blood
through the process of transfusion, I might, to all in-
tents and purposes, become a Caucasian. You cannot
understand what that means, you who have not been
an object of contempt and disdain through no fault
of your own; you who have not been jostled brutally
on the sidewalk and kicked off the curb by your actual
inferiors, and felt yourself helpless to resent brutality
and insult!

“Briefly, his theory was this : That the tiny particles
of our bodies which we now call cells, breed and repro-
duce their kind in a manner somewhat similar to
that of most animals; that the inbreeding through
countless generations, in the body of a human being
which they themselves compose, causes a loss in fe-
cundity just as it does in horses and cattle; causes the
cells to degenerate, to ‘run out,’ as we say of animals
and plants; and that this loss- in fecundity is the true
cause of old age. He believed that, as stock men range
far afield for new strains to strengthen the breeds of
their flocks and herds, so new vigor might be acquired
by introducing young and vigorous cells into the blood
of the aged. Necessarily, the cells to be so introduced
must be from, the vascular systems of youth; and even
then, I think, he glimpsed the truth which science has
but lately demonstrated, that the character of the blood
of an individual becomes fixed at the age of three or
four years and thereafter remains constant.

“There is no doubt that the ancient Alchemists prac-
ticed this method of rejuvenation. Immortelle’s error
lay in his theory as to the manner of reproduction of
the cells, which, instead of breeding with older cells
in the veins of the recipient, simply multiplied through
division in their new locations crowding out the weaker
cells, and went about their tasks of building the body
with new materials and removing the waste products.

“Transfusion is old — how old no man can say. It
was probably practiced long before recorded history. A
friend of mine who has accompanied several archeo-
logical expeditions to the Far East asserts that the Al-
chemists gained their knowledge from the secret

records of a fraternity old before Babylon and
Nineveh became but rubbish heaps covered by the
shifting desert sands! It is a fact that transfusion
was employed in the case of Pope Innocent VII, and
there is a tradition to the effect that three young boys
perished in the attempt. Perhaps the old legends of
vampirism had their origin in such a source.

‘‘’’"TpRANSFUSION is a common operation today, but

A when Albert Immortelle first broached the sub-
ject to me, an open announcement of our object would
have been regarded with the greatest horror and only
too well-founded fear of results would have rendered it
impossible for us to secure subjects. Anesthetics had
not yet been discovered and aseptic surgery was a hun-
dred years in the future. We had to devise ways and
means of securing subjects.

“It was my young master’s plan to found an orphan-
age, whose most promising inmates he would later use
for his transfusion experiments, which heretofore had
included animals only. I was to be his first subject
after the children; and when I had mastered the de-
tails of the process, he himself would submit to the
operation. Of course, the danger as well as the suf-
fering was incalculably greater than in these days of
anesthetics and aseptic surgery. My master was skilled
in the art of hypnotism, or mesmerism, as it was then
called, but it often failed. Probably he was the first
surgeon to use that strange force for anesthetization.
It is a well-known fact that children are less suscept-
ible to it than adults; and our subjects were all chil-
dren, mostly of tender years — in fact all that survived
were of such tender age! Tales of children of such
age would in any event be treated as due to vivid imag-
inations. Even to this day I sometimes waken from
nightmares with the agonized screams of those little
victims ringing in my ears.

“Today there is practically no danger from infection
and the danger from clotting is being eliminated
through the division of humanity into groups classified
according to the constituency of their blood. We had
no aspirating syringe to determine the amount of
blood taken from the donors and how many little vic-
tims lost their lives in this manner, as sacrifices to
our rejuvenation, I have no means of knowing. It was,
of course, unwise to keep records of such cases. All I
know is that there were many fatalities. How we es-
caped with our own lives is a mystery to me. I am
unable to fathom the inscrutable purpose of Providence
in allowing us to cumber this earth for so long a time.

“When my conscience revolted, always before my eyes
Immortelle dangled the bait of my own altered per-
sonality ; for I had emerged, a radiant Caucasian, from
my somber and repellent negroid chrysalis. As far as I
personally am concerned, from a physical standpoint,
I am, or rather was, a living witness to the success, of
his experiment. Even the most widely experienced
ethnologist would hardly suspect me of having one drop
of negro blood in my veins. No one who had known
me as a kinky-haired mulatto youth, were he in exist-
ence still, would ever recognize that colored boy in the
cultured, refined Caucasian with the waving brown
hair, hazel eyes and complexion as fair as your own,
with the rosy hue of health in his cheeks. From a
selfish and brutal young savage with a violent temper,
I had been transformed into an amiable and tractable
individual, vastly useful to my master, but more con-
scientious than was conducive to my peace of mind or
his. This was due, I am sure, to Immortelle’s delib-
erate selection of children of most amiable disposition
for donors in transfusion operations in which I was the
recipient. For himself he always selected fearless and
intrepid subjects of indomitable wills. Such wills are

DR. IMMORTELLE

565

often characteristic of amiable children. Stubbornness
and strength of will differ from each other as widely
as the poles.

“For the sake of greater safety, to be more reason-
ably certain that the blood of the donor would assimi-
late with my own, in the beginning Immortelle chose
donors amongst mulattoes, then quadroons, then octo-
roons, before he selected white donors. He had formu-
lated a theory which is now a well-established fact,
that to introduce the blood of a higher animal into the
veins of a lower is to cause the death of the lower.
The negroid strain being predominant in my blood, and
the negro race being inferior to the Caucasian, he log-
ically reasoned that the introduction of pure white blood
into my veins might result fatally to me. Always he
bled me freely before a transfusion. It is probable that
there is hardly a trace of Ethiopian blood in my veins
today. Immortelle deserves credit at least for his sci-
entific accomplishments. Intellectually he was a giant
amongst the men of his time. When he commenced his
experiments he had no safe and sure scientific ground
beneath his feet. He was treading the insecure and
shifting sands of conjecture.

“Always he emphasized the ultimate benefit to hu-
manity of our experiments; but for many a long and
lonely year I realized that his own chief object was
to live as long as possible, in order to gratify his sen-
sual appetites, however Epicurean they might have
been termed, to the limit of danger to his hold on life.

“Every man with a drop of negroid blood in his
veins has a passionate desire for offspring. Several
times I contemplated marriage, but Albert always dis-
couraged me, and, I realize now, placed all possible
obstacles in the way of accomplishing my desire. Ah'
ways there was the vexatious problem of the ‘throw-
back,’ the reversion to type. Mendel, the Austrian
monk, had not formulated his famous laws at the com-
mencement of our operations, but I believe Immortelle
had a more or less hazy conception of the principles
involved long before Mendel announced them to a skep-
tical world.

“In any event, Immortelle argued, if we married and
had families, we must either wutness the passing from
life of our wives and offspring, or witness their endur-
ance of the sufferings and dangers of transfusion. We
knew nothing of aseptic surgery, but I believe my mas-
ter grasped the principles of it before we commenced
our experiments, for he always used boiled water and
the scorched linen dressings that so many regarded
merely as a superstition of old midwives.

“npHERE was always the danger of thrombosis due

A to the admixture of certain bloods which refused
to assimilate. Immortelle argued, with good grounds
for his conviction, that it would be impossible to re-
juvenate our wives and offspring even to the second
generation, without knowledge of our methods becom-
ing known. Someone amongst such a large group
would inevitably give the secret away. Also when a
hue and cry were raised, as was bound to be the case
sooner or later, it w r ould be difficult, if not impossible,
to escape from popular wrath with a large number of
relatives and dependents. It had been difficult enough
on several occasions for our two selves. So reluctantly
I relinquished my dream of conjugal felicity — the ten-
der joys of one’s own fireside, for the Dead Sea fruit
of immortality in the flesh. I realized my error many
long years ago: for I have come to know that immor-
tality for the individual isolated from his kind could
not atone for the loss of the happiness conferred by
a perfect and harmonious union and the sweet delights
afforded by the companionship of one’s own offspring.

“Of course it was impossible to conduct an orphan-

age without attendants, and more especially female
attendants. Ours were chiefly young women who had
committed indiscretions and whose reputations had
been saved by Immortelle and myself. They were obvi-
ously curious when assisting at transfusion operations,
but their curiosity was never satisfied. The trained
nurse had not as yet been evolved when we commenced
our experiments in rejuvenation.*

“Naturally all our philanthropic efforts to save the
reputations of the erring were not successful. Usually
they covered their tracks in coming to us and always
bore an assumed name. When they departed, only Im-
mortelle and I knew how, or when, or what their des-
tination was. We had many aliases, he and I, but used
our own names most frequently. It was embarrass-
ing to meet people one had perhaps known forty years
before. In such cases, he often passed for a son of
himself, as in Idaho, where, however, he failed to de-
ceive your father.

“In spite of all, suspicion would fasten on us.
Rumors would spread connecting us with various mys-
terious disappearances. We found it expedient to leave
our New York address on one occasion, more hastily
than was convenient. So it was with our Philadelphia
orphanage and others we established in this country.
It was the same with those we established in London,
and in Paris and other Continental cities. In some loca-
tions we spent as long a period as ten years. In others
no sooner were we established than some catastrophe
would occur, which would spoil all our plans and send
us scurrying into hiding. This was the case when we
were compelled to depart so hastily from that quiet and
comparatively isolated valley in Idaho, where you and I
first met — you a child and I to all appearances a young
and inexperienced physician, but in reality an old and
saddened man with experience of agonies unparalleled
by any other person save my master, Immortelle! On
him they had had apparently no effect.

“In that little Idaho mining camp everything
seemed favorable to our plans. It was a small camp
and yet not small enough to allow each resident to be-
come extremely familiar with the private affairs of all
the rest. There was a considerable floating population,
as in all mining camps, which was an advantage from
our point of view.

“The absolute privacy essential to the successful pros-
ecution of our plans was possible in the house we chose
amongst the magnificent old cottonwoods of the river
bottom and from which that beautiful but brawling
stream derives its name. Earth does not hold a more
picturesque spot than that narrow valley walled in by
the precipitous mountains of the Sawtooth range.
Often I close my eyes to see quite vividly again those
miles on miles of cottonwoods. I recall the contrast of
their orange hues in autumn with the dark green of
the hardy firs that venture bravely down into the val-
ley so far from most of their kind, and I see the thou-
sands of acres of flame-colored chokecherry brush. And
in the early summer, who that has ever seen them can
forget those acres upon acres of blue forget-me-nots?
In that valley they seem to disregard their naturally re-
tiring habits that leads them to choose their abodes in
the shelter of trees and shrubs. Away from all shelter,
they boldly advance into the valley and flaunt their
vivid hues under the bluer skies of Idaho !

“Our house, as you remember, was an old, flimsy,
unpainted weatherbeaten structure, but easily and
cheaply remodeled for our purpose, ostensibly that of
residence and laboratory. Immortelle was supposed to
be deeply interested in the study of chemistry. Natur-
ally, in such a climate, where the cold is so intense for

*The first class of trained nurses was graduated in 1872,

566

AMAZING STORIES QUARTERLY

a long period of each year, deep cellars are indispens-
able. We constructed a large one, also an under-
ground laboratory with double skylight and heavy shut-
ters which would prevent freezing of our chemicals and
also serve to muffle any undesirable sounds and outcries.

“The river bottom consisted chiefly of gravel in
which a small grave might easily and rapidly be dug at
dead of night, if necessary. Also, the cottonwoods and
thickets of wild roses, chokecherries and other shrubs
hung with the creepers of the wild clematis, screened
us in summer from inquisitive eyes and permitted easy
access to a certain disreputable quarter of the camp. It
was always possible in case of urgent necessity to se-
cure assistance from this quarter, for there are always
some nurses amongst these unfortunates. Dr. Immor-
telle never passed up anything. In return for his pro-
fessional services he was usually able to obtain assist-
ance that was almost as invaluable as his own. We
were acquainted with the details of many a tragedy hid-
den from the knowledge of the general public. As you
may know, it was the discovery by two little girls of
the grave of a newborn infant, richly clad, in the
gravel of the river bottom, together with the death of
little Vernon Chaumelle, that precipitated our flight.

“There never was any necessity, from a financial
standpoint, for Dr. Immortelle or myself to practice
our professions. The proceeds from the sale of his
father’s plantation, to which he was the only heir, had
been invested in Manhattan real estate nearly a hun-
dred years before, as well as my own salary after the
Emancipation Proclamation. The doctor’s profession
was only a blind, only a cloak for our real and sinister
purposes.

“ A CONSIDERABLE space of time is naturally re-
l \ quired to establish a physician in a new location.
Immortelle usually employed some length of time in
judiciously cultivating the acquaintance of the local
‘four hundred,’ many of whom, sooner or later, he was
absolutely certain, would require his professional ser-
vices. It fell to my lot to make the acquaintance of the
oldest inhabitants and, through them, to familiarize
myself with the history of the best families, chiefly in
regard to heredity, persistently recurring physical
characteristics and freedom from blood taint of a cer-
tain character.

“The densely wooded river bottom furnished an ideal
playground for the children of the camp. There were
long stretches of clean white sand and gravel to play
in; Indian paint brush to suck honey from; thickets
of wild roses, willow clumps for shade with violets
hidden in the lush grass of their shady recesses, coral
flowers and fragrant red mallow. An ideal spot also
for two human vampires to find a childish victim !

“Not being on the main line of the railroad, that
section was rarely visited by tramps at that time, al-
though at long intervals they used the willows for a
camping ground. Down there in the willows we assidu-
ously cultivated the friendship of the little ones
through stories we told them, and the judicious gifts
of sweets. We finally decided upon a donor for the
next transfusion operation in which Immortelle was
to be the recipient. Carefully we spun the threads of
our web.

“The Chaumelles were amongst the oldest and most
respected residents of that section. There was no blood
taint in the family. They had been clean living and
high thinking people for generations. One of the chil-
dren, Vernon, met all but one of the doctor’s require-
ments. He possessed no trace of cruelty, and he was
a hundred per cent perfect from a physical standpoint.
He was courageous, strong-willed, but not stubborn,
and of more than average mentality. He was then

scarcely five years old and Linnie, his little sister and
constant companion, was a little over three. They often
came to play in the willows with older children. One
day they ran away by themselves from their home at
the opposite edge of town. They were playing in the
grove near our house when Vernon fell and hurt his
arm. It was a mere scratch and really needed no atten-
tion. By dint of a little candy and considerable per-
suasion, we succeeded in getting them inside the house,
little golden-haired Linnie, with the wide, wondering
blue eyes, and dark-eyed, sturdy little Vernon.

“Linnie was left in our living-room, while Immor-
telle extracted the splinter from her little brother’s
arm. A box of chocolates and some wondrously illus-
trated story books, purchased purposely for such occa-
sions, occupied her attention for awhile; but tiring of
them, she found her way unexpectedly, through a door
carelessly left unlocked, to our subterranean operating-
room. I have never been able to forget the expression
of her great blue eyes when she saw me in my white
smock and cap, surrounded by the implements of my
murderous occupation, and her little brother strapped
securely to one table under the influence of the imper-
fect anesthetic, his pale face becoming ever paler as the
life stream flowed from his little artery through the
glass tube into the vein of the sinister-looking man
reclining on the other table beside the child’s couch.
We were not yet using an aspirating syringe, which
would allow us to measure the quantity of blood lost
by the donor, and were alarmed by the pallor and weak-
ness of the little boy. Even the two hardened creatures
who assisted at the operation seemed frightened and
conscience-stricken.

“I carried Vernon home, his little pale face resting
on my shoulder. I had concocted some plausible tale to
account for the prolonged absence of the children. The
whole camp had been searching for them. I told a story
of a fall and a wound caused by a piece of tin from an
old can left by some hoboes at their camp, and a serious
loss of blood. I promised to call next day and dress
the wound in case it seemed inexpedient to take Vernon
to the office. Dr. Immortelle was indisposed, having
injured himself with a lancet in dressing Vernon’s
wound. What a hypocrite I felt; how vile I knew my-
self to be, when they thanked me so profusely for my
kindness!

“You know what happens sometimes to the best laid
plans of mice and men. Perhaps you recall the incident
that led to our undoing; how Vernon’s uncle, an east-
ern surgeon of some note, arrived unexpectedly on a
visit and himself dressed the wound; how his sus-
picions were aroused. You remember how an infection
developed and the child died, and how almost simul-
taneously the grave of a newborn infant was discov-
ered in suspiciously close proximity to our ‘laboratory.’
Perhaps you can recall the investigation that followed.
You may remember that a sort of catacombs was later
discovered connecting with our operating-room, several
bricked-up niches and their gruesome contents ; but be-
fore that we were well on our way to safety. We
owned one of the first automobiles in that part of the
country.

“Your father declared that he had known Immortelle
himself forty years before in the East, and not the lat-
ter’s father, as Immortelle had always insisted; and to
cap the climax, your grandfather solemnly averred that
he had known this same Immortelle sixty years before,
and that at the time he appeared in Wood River Val-
ley, he appeared no older than at the time your grand-
father had known him in his youth ! One factor in his
recognition and his positive identification consisted of
a peculiar triangular scar over the left eyebrow. Had
it been a birthmark it might have appeared for sev-

DR. IMMORTELLE

567

eral generations ; but it was improbable that three gen-
erations would meet with an accident resulting in the
same identically shaped scar in the very same location.
Some who had known your father and grandfather
well for many years were frankly puzzled. They knew
them for men whose reputation for truth and veracity
had never been questioned. Others were greatly
amused and openly accused them of being the victims
of hallucinations. They made sarcastic references to
the Wandering Jew, to St. Germaine, to Lord Lytton’s
well-known hero, Zanoni, and that lesser-known but no
less remarkable character of fiction, Melmuth the Wan-
derer.

“ \ FTER some years we returned to San Francisco.

Both of us were younger in appearance than when
we fled from Idaho. Also, there were several little
graves in the Argentine, whose occupants, if they could
have spoken, might have thrown considerable light on
the source of our youthful appearance and whose pite-
ous tales would have wrung the hearts of humanity and
brought down swift and terrible retribution on the
vampires who had waxed young and strong on their
suffering and the sacrifice of their young lives.

“It was not long until Immortelle was practicing suc-
cessfully again, with a numerous and fashionable
clientele. He soon acquired a reputation for philan-
thropy by contributing princely sums to various or-
phanages and other charitable institutions for children,
and was always ready and willing to attend the little
unfortunates they harbored, giving his services freely
and without charge. Also, he did much charity work
amongst the children of the poor, although not nearly
so much as he was given credit for doing. I myself did
a large portion of the work he was credited with. He
was known to be deeply interested in the study of
heredity and was a specialist in blood transfusion,
which becomes increasingly safer, because of the con-
tinuous progress in aseptic surgery and the classifica-
tion of humanity into groups according to the constitu-
ents of their blood.

“When at last his reputation seemed firmly estab-
lished, he purchased an old house in the midst of a
large, wooded acreage close to the ocean shore and
within sound of the breakers, many miles south of the
city. It had formerly belonged to an eccentric and
wealthy recluse, who had chosen this secluded situation
for his retirement. The advent of the automobile had
changed conditions somewhat and a highway ran a com-
paratively short distance from the place. The house
was an old, rambling structure. It stands on a rocky
promontory overlooking the ocean, surrounded on two
sides by a tall, thick cypress hedge. Little did the
passing motorists dream of the stairs that led down
through solid rock to a tunnel connecting with the
ocean, and in which a stout boat was always moored.

“It was here that we established an orphanage and
sanitarium for a small number of children, after thor-
oughly remodeling the old place. For these children
Immortelle had conceived a deep and eternal interest
and affection, but he sometimes remarked, with the
most wistful expression and in an extremely melan-
choly tone, that no sooner had he become deeply at-
tached to one of his young proteges than Fate would
operate in some strange way to deprive him of their
companionship — a fact which I thoroughly understood
and was well able to confirm. He might also have added
that Fate had seen fit to deprive him of the services
of several nurses who had assisted at transfusion oper-
ations which had terminated unfortunately.

“Of course all our philanthropic efforts to avert dis-
grace did not terminate as we could desire. There were
a number of mysterious disappearances of young women

from that region which have never been explained to
the satisfaction of — shall we use the stereotyped for-
mula of ‘the police’ or of the ‘general public’? But in
the public mind our own institution was never con-
nected with them in any way until that accident in
Deep Canyon.

“•pvUitmG the influenza epidemic, beautiful Linnie
Chaumelle entered into our lives again, Linnie
whom we had known as a child in Idaho and whose
little brother Vernon had virtually met death at our
hands. All the nurses in San Francisco were either in
attendance on victims of the epidemic or ill themselves
when it made its appearance at our orphanage. Linnie
had chosen the career of a trained nurse. There is no
finer or nobler under heaven. Her parents had both
died when she was quite young and the family had be-
come widely separated. Very likely she had forgotten
the names of Immortelle and myself. Albert engaged
her without a personal interview, contrary to his usual
habit, on the recommendation of a brother physician.
It was something we had never done before, but our
need was urgent. When they met, it was obvious to
me, who knew him so well, that with Dr. Immortelle,
the selfish, cynical, absolutely conscienceless man of
the world, it was a case of love at first sight !

“It was not to be wondered at. Linnie Chaumelle
is the most beautiful woman I have ever seen during
more than a century and a half of evil living. She
could well have served some great artist as the model
for an angel, with her rose-leaf skin, her masses of
chestnut hair with its glints of gold framing her lovely
face; and those large, limpid blue eyes, through which
one may glimpse her radiant soul.

“As time passed, it became increasingly evident that,
for the first time in his evil existence, Albert had fallen
victim to that little god who is no respecter of persons.
Day by day I watched his love for Linnie grow. He
vainly endeavored to exert his undoubtedly great hyp-
notic powers over her, but no evil power could affect
that pure spirit that occupied a plane so vastly supe-
rior to his own. I had determined, in any event, that
her mind should be kept free from the octopus-like
tentacles of his hypnotic powers at any cost to myself.

“As I have said, all our philanthropic efforts did
not terminate as successfully as we could have desired.
It was while Linnie was at the sanitarium that one of
the disastrous terminations occurred. Linnie is not
naturally suspicious, but she is a young woman of more
than average intelligence. As a nurse, she possesses
from observation a wide knowledge of evil in countless
manifestations; but her own soul has remained un-
contaminated. She had not been there long before vari-
ous circumstances combined to arouse her suspicions.

“I have mentioned a subterranean passage. It was
convenient in case of emergency; and yet we found
that stout ropes and even chains attached to pallid
bodies of unfortunates and anchored by heavy weights
have been snapped asunder by the violence of the
breakers on that rocky coast. It was an incident of
that nature that led to Immortelle’s decision to dispose
otherwise of the remains of a young and beautiful un-
fortunate and that likewise led to our undoing. Fate
is a tricky hag! I should say, more correctly, what I
now know to be the truth, that the time was at hand
for reaping what we had sown.

“We had spent most of the previous night in digging
a grave in the mellow soil of a small, isolated country
place down the Peninsula. The ground belonged to me
and I objected to this use of it, but my objections were
silenced as usual by Immortelle. We removed the mute
witness of our evil deeds from the sanitarium under
cover of darkness, as we supposed, without the knowl-

568

AMAZING STORIES QUARTERLY

edge of any of the inmates except the one nurse attend-
ant on that case. We had no reason to fear that she
would make any damaging disclosures.

“Immortelle placed the poor body in the rear* seat
and sat beside it, supporting it in an upright position,
while I drove the car. As I have said, he was by nature
cowardly, and not all the transfusions from the veins
of courageous donors had ever overcome this tendency.
A large touring car followed us somewhat closely. Im-
mortelle suspected that they had some suspicion of our
sinister design, or that they might contemplate a
hold-up. I think he was entirely wrong, but at any rate
he became greatly agitated and was thrown into a per-
fect paroxysm of terror. His great black eyes rolled
like the eyes of a maniac, his pallid face forming a
startling contrast to his raven hair. His forehead was
covered with great drops of perspiration and he was
shaking as if with an ague. In any event, they could
hardly have overtaken us. Our car was specially con-
structed for speed — as a physician’s car should be, of
course! Only we knew what speed it was capable of
attaining. But he was terror-stricken, incapable of
reasoning.

“Taster! Faster!’ he screamed, as I drove the car
at dangerous speed around sharp curves on the brink
of a five-hundred-foot precipice. We managed to elude
our pursuers, if such they were, by turning off into a
little-used road and waiting until they had passed ; then
we turned back into the main road. Never have I seen
a human being in such a panic. In spite of my remon-
strances he made me stop as close to the brink as pos-
sible, where the canon wall fell away below us for hun-
dreds of feet, and compelled me to assist in pushing the
poor girl’s body over the edge into the abyss below.
Then we re-entered the car and drove on to the city.

“In the ordinary course of events, the corpse would
have remained undiscovered for years, perhaps until
identification had become difficult, if not impossible;
but in avoiding Scylla, we had become engulfed in
Charybdis. Some Boy Scouts climbed down into the
canon next day to recover a lost hat and made the
gruesome discovery of the remains!

“The papers were full of pictures of the poor victim
who was not identified for a considerable space of time.
They were full of supposed details of the crime. We
felt comparatively safe, as only one of our nurses had
been in attendance on the victim and we had every
reason to feel sure of her discretion and loyalty. We
had taken special precautions in regard to the ar-
rival at the sanitarium of the girl now dead, so we felt
confident that only the three of us had seen her there ;
but it happened that, of all persons in the world, Lin-
nie had by accident, through the opening of the wrong
door on a certain occasion, obtained a passing glimpse
of her and recognized her picture! She went to Im-
mortelle at once. Her wonderful eyes rested steadily
on his as she said :

“ ‘I will ask you to take me to the city immediately,
Dr. Immortelle.’

“T_TE remonstrated, but it was useless, so he agreed
ll that we should take her in to the city that eve-
ning. Then he laid the hideous plan in which I appar-
ently acquiesced.

“‘She knows too much, now!’ he said, his face dis-
torted with rage and fear. ‘She must be silenced!’ I
shuddered. I had heard those words from him so
many times in the course of close to a hundred and
fifty years. I am certain he had come to feel the same
towards me because of my increasing repugnance
toward the course we were pursuing, which must have
been obvious to him. My awakening conscience must
have become a source of alarm to this man, himself.

without even the vestige of such an inconvenient fac-
ulty. I believe that he had planned my removal, as soon
as it could be conveniently accomplished and he could
secure the assistance of a confederate to take my place.

“We owned a cabin in a secluded nook, not far from
the road, yet far enough to prevent any sounds of ter-
ror or agony from being heard by passing motorists.
It had proven convenient for our purposes on more than
one occasion. Its windows were heavily shuttered and
it was surrounded by dense shrubs and trees, so that
its existence would ordinarily have remained unsus-
pected by passers-by. Immortelle proposed that we
should start for the city with Linnie. We were to de-
velop engine trouble when opposite the cabin. Knowing
that Linnie would not care to remain alone with him
on the highway, such was the repugnance with which
he evidently inspired her, I was to go to the cabin for
the tools we should find necessary, and she was to ac-
company me. The rest would be easy, he judged from
certain past experiences of a similar nature. After
she had been drugged and rendered insensible and was
at his mercy — after she had been kept at the pleasure
of his will as long as suited his purpose, he judged she
would become sufficiently tractable. Her own few re-
maining relatives were far away and she would prob-
ably not be missed for an indefinite period.

“I had an entirely different plan. I reverenced Lin-
nie as I have never reverenced any other woman. I
instinctively sensed the incorruptible purity of her
soul, her unlimited sympathy of that maternal char-
acter which persists, though even in the very slightest
degree, in the most debased and corrupted specimen of
femininity. I would gladly have given my life to
save her from him. I had no hope that she would
ever care for me — no desire to bind her pure life to
mine, with its innumerable crimes. I had ceased to
crave for continued existence. The many crimes in
which I had been Immortelle’s accomplice, although for
years unwillingly, lay heavy on my conscience. From
myself the world had nothing more to fear; but the
conscience of Immortelle was unawakened. He was a
menace to humanity. I decided that the greatest ser-
vice I could render humanity would be to put an end
to his career, even at the sacrifice of my own life.

“We left the orphanage that evening offer dinner.
I was driving. Linnie occupied the seat beside me,
refusing to sit in the rear seat with Immortelle, where,
unknown to herself, only a short time before he had
supported the body of a victim. Not far from the cabin
that was to be her destination, and not far distant from
the place where we had thrown the body of the young
nurse over the canon wall, I ran over a pedestrian.
He was a tramp, clad in khaki-colored clothing — you
know its low range of visibility — but we might have
avoided striking him had it not been for the excessive
speed at which we were traveling.

“ ‘Drive on ! Drive on, you fool !’ screamed Immor-
telle as I stopped the car. All of us got out. The man
was fatally injured but he still breathed.

“ ‘Dead!’ said Albert nonchalantly. He took the vic-
tim by the feet and dragged him out of the road.

“ ‘Get in !’ he ordered, as Linnie stood there, white
with horror.

“ ‘Surely you will not leave him there !’ she gasped.
‘The man is not dead!’

“‘He is only a tramp! What difference can his life
or death make?’ snarled Immortelle.

“ ‘He is a human being ! If you leave him here you
will leave me with him!’ she said defiantly. The spot-
light shone on Immortelle’s face. It was black with
rage and murderous. And then Linnie remembered!

“ ‘I know you now, you fiend !’ she said, and took
a step nearer and shook her finger accusingly at him.

DR. IMMORTELLE

569

“ ‘You are the man who killed my little brother!’

“Immortelle snarled like a trapped animal. There
was the flash of steel in his hand; but before he could
spring on Linnie with the knife, I had struck him on
the head with a revolver. Then I trussed him up with
a tow-rope and a dog-chain we had in the car. The
tramp had breathed his last. I dragged both of them
into the bushes. I put Linnie into the car.

“ ‘I will return for them,’ I said in answer to her un-
spoken question. We started for the nearest little rail-
road station, thinking she could catch the midnight
local to the city. On the way I gave her the barest
outline of this story. She is a nurse and acquainted
with the marvelous results of transfusion, with all the
latest aids and discoveries of the scientific medical
world. Perhaps she thought me a mere madman, but
I fully believe she accepted my story and had faith in
my repentance. I made her promise to say nothing
until she should hear from me again. I wanted to keep
her name out of the papers. You know what they are.
We had engine trouble in truth and it was late when
we reached the outskirts of the little station where she
was to take the train. Immortelle and myself and our
car were well known there and I judged it best, in spite
of the lateness of the hour, for her to proceed alone.

“ ‘You will probably never see me again,’ I said at
parting. ‘Think kindly of me sometimes, if you can.’

“ ‘Do not go back!’ she begged. ‘I am afraid for you!
He will kill you!’

“PERHAPS she sensed that bit of good in me which
ST persists in the most hardened. I had saved her.
Perhaps she grasped my plan, telepathically, and
shrank from its accomplishment, for her forebears have
been law-abiding people for many generations. I took
her hand and kissed it. The little innocent, with an
impulse which sprang from her recognition of my genu-
ine repentance, her gratitude, and her own strong ma-
ternal instinct of protection, put up her pure lips for
me to kiss, she with her lily-white soul and I with
my soul as black as my face once was! I was not fit
to touch the hem of her garment with my lips, but I
kissed her once. Nothing can erase .the memory of that
kiss. That second of supreme bliss was enough to rec-
ompense me for all I must face here and in the here-
after. I know you do not begrudge it to me, you who
are destined to be her mate. Remember that, though
I have practically become Aryan in body, my soul is
still that of an Ethiopian — and colored people have
strange moments of clairvoyance, whose reason is
known only to the occultist.

“I drove away and left her. I have seen death in
countless forms ; I have been an accomplice, times with-
out number, in what practically amounted to murder
under the guise of scientific experimentation; I have
witnessed scenes of horror whose remembrance fills me
with an agony of remorse; and tears had been strangers
to my eyes for what seemed like ages; but when I
drove away and left here there, I could hardly see to
drive for the blessed tears that filled my eyes. You
know what happened — that she was too late for the
local and started to walk to San Mateo, carrying her
heavy suitcase. And how you came along and picked
her up, thank God!

“I returned to the spot where I had left Immortelle
and the body of the tramp. It makes cold chills run
up and down my spine even now when I remember the
look in Immortelle’s eyes when I turned my flashlight
on him where he lay bound and gagged. His eyes
seemed to emit veritable flashes of venomous light. I
almost quailed before him, bound and helpless as he
was; but the thought of Linnie put courage into me.
And I realized that my failure to carry out my plan

meant death for me. My one fear was that someone
would come along before my work was done, but there
was little traffic over that road at night.

“ ‘Now I am going to drive both of us over the cliff,'

I said. ‘If it were not for dragging her name through
the mire, I would surrender myself and you to the
authorities. But Justice is sometimes slow and uncer-
tain, My plan seems the surest. I do not hold myself
less guilty than yourself, although you were the great-
est criminal in the beginning. However, I awoke, long
ago, to the enormity of our crimes and would have
endeavored to atone, in some measure, had you allowed
me to do so. I have never been able to detect the
slightest evidence of repentance in you. I wish it were
possible for you to meet the fate you so richly de-
serve, in full possession of your faculties, but I dare not
risk it. I shall be compelled to give you a few shots
in the arm to insure your good behavior, for I shall
have to unbind you to make the execution appear to
be an accident.’ Almost it seemed that he would break
even the stout chain in his frantic struggles to escape
the awful fate that threatened. I drove the needle in
deliberately, and often enough to render him incapable
of resistance.

“I placed the tramp in the middle of the road. Then
I lifted Immortelle into the machine, backed down the
road some distance, came on at the rate of forty miles
an hour or more, swerved the car as if in an effort to
avoid running over the body of the tramp, and the next
instant we were falling through space — down —
down

“You know how they picked up Immortelle, crushed
and battered out of all semblance to his former self;
how a tree broke my fall and they found me with my
head and face unmarred, but with my back broken by
the boulder I struck. Obviously, the papers all agreed,
and I later corroborated them, that it was an accident
due to the driver’s swerving the car sharply in an ef-
fort to avoid running over the tramp. The most puz-
zling feature was the presence of a woman’s footprints
at the scene of the tragedy, a mystery which has never
been solved! A possible solution was that the tramp
had been struck by a hit-and-run woman motorist, who,
finding that her car had killed the pedestrian, after
getting out and examining him, had driven away and
feared to report the accident.

“Immortelle’s vast fortune will revert to the State,
as he left no heirs. My own fortune I have left to be
used for scientific and medical research, more espe-
cially with regard to blood transfusion and its free and
scientific application for the benefit of suffering hu-
manity.

“Sometimes as I lie here, I wonder if evil, or what '
we call by that name, is ever employed in the scheme
of things for good ends. Can it be needed, like the sub-
stance we place at the roots of flowers to cause them
to bloom more luxuriantly and more radiantly? Well,

I shall soon know!” he said with that prescience of
approaching death with which I was so soon to become
familiar on the battlefields of France. He passed away
that night.

Before I left him he made me promise to give his
story to the world, believing that in proper hands, under
scientific supervision, transftision might prove of tre-
mendous value to humanity; that it might be employed,
not only to rejuvenate, but to repair and remedy both
physical and mental defects. I have done my best. As
I have said in the beginning, I am only a mining engi-
neer, more familiar with the symbols of mineralogy and
chemistry than with figures of speech.

Linnie and I both went across to France soon after
our marriage. I remember the night we left San Fran-
( Continued on page 574)

570

The Triple Ray

( Continued from page 529)

the infra-red ray was achieved. The cutting of this
prism was an amazingly difficult matter, since the red
rays must be bent through it and returned so as to ex-
actly coincide with the course of the violet. The prism
itself cost a small fortune, since at that time quartz was
worth its weight in diamonds.

In order that the lay mind as well as the scientific
may understand, I will go a bit into detail and describe
the X-Ray outfit, since this was of prime importance.
The outfit itself consisted of an adjustable arm holding
a heavy bowl made of glass and lead mixed. Two deep
slots in the sides of this bowl were for the purpose of
admitting the arms of the tube when it is set in the
bowl. The tube itself has much the appearance of a
smooth glass cabbage, with glass arms extending axis-
wise. In the center of the tube is a spark-gap, across
which the current jumps, striking against a tungsten
target set to receive it at an angle of forty-five degrees.
The X-Ray is produced by this impact and is directed
outward at right angles to the target.

The real success of Lucius Raymond, I am convinced,
lay, however, in the fact that he first introduced a gase-
ous element into the tube, which he then operated so
instead of as a complete vacuum. What this element
may have been I do not know, other than that it was
subjected to a storm of radioactive particles before it
was used. Prof. Raymond was fanatically reticent
about this and feared inordinately that the formula
would fall into alien hands. I do know, however, that
at the first charge of current through the tube it
changed from a clouded appearance to instant invisibil-
ity, and it was my friend’s boast that thereafter he
would defy anyone to detect its presence, let alone at-
tempt an analysis of it.

But though indetectable, its effect was mighty.
Leaded glass alone could withstand its power once it
had left the prism, and even this melted away after a
few moments’ intense exposure to the ray so generated.
Both he and I were elated at its success.

But in his attempts to present this to his government
he had to follow a long and hard bureaucratic road. It
was either this official wasn’t interested or that one was
away playing golf or the entire War Department was
in a coma and didn’t give a hang. While in this last
condition, no doubt, they finally gave Prof. Raymond an
opportunity to demonstrate his machine.

I can still see bluff old Admiral Ryan with his gray
walrus mustache and twinkling eye. He was in charge
at the Navy Yard. Lucius Raymond and I had just ar-
rived at the proving ground. I carried the small black
case, no bigger than a portable typewriter, which held
his machine.

He gave us a quizzical look and asked, “Well, where’s
the new cannon?”

When I held out the black case, the old man fumbled
quickly with his mustache, which concealed, I knew, a
wide smile. However, he led the way through the gates
and advanced onto the wind-swept proving-ground
beach.

“Well, gentlemen, there’s your target,” and he swept
his hand in a gesture toward a huge block of steel which
was up-ended in the sand almost at the edge of the roll-
ing Atlantic. “A sixteen-inch shell would have mighty
hard sleddin’ to come out on the other side,” he added
and ended sceptically, “but maybe your black case can
go around it or over it,” and he laughed. I laughed as
well, since I foresaw the surprise ahead of the Admiral.

A small stone building some three hundred yards
from the target had been fitted up as a temporary lab-
oratory. There Lucius and I unpacked the case, con-
nected up the tube, which was scarcely as large as those
used for dental X-Rays, and then set the timer.

It had taken but a few moments. “Very well, Ad-
miral,” said Lucius. “Shall we step outside and watch?
I have timed the automatic trigger to release in sixty
seconds.”

“H — m. All right,” he agreed, visibly unimpressed,
and we passed out, with Raymond’s tall, cadaverous
figure in direct contrast to the stocky build of the
Admiral. Outside the building the grizzled old fellow
took up his stand with legs planted wide apart — directly
in front of the window-opening for the ray !

“My dear Admiral,” said Lucius quickly, “if you
please! You are directly in the path of my ray. Your
atoms are far too valuable to be freely scattered to the
elements.” The old fellow jumped quickly and nervously
moved aside with an embarrassed laugh.

As he moved a tiny bell within the building tinkled.
“In ten seconds,” Lucius said, and quietly counted
aloud. As he reached ten a faint, burring sound came
from within the building.

Every eye was fastened upon the target, including
those of a group of officers present. And I could not but
help feeling a small gush of pure pride at my own small
part in the Twin Ray. For immediately a tiny cloud of
dust appeared to float from the center of the steel block
and vanished quietly into the air, while the early morn-
ing sun shed his first bright beams through a clean,
round hole in the target’s face. It was easily a foot in
diameter.

“By Gad, sir,” gasped the Admiral, “you did it! And
here I’ve hammered away at these targets for thirty
years, and you turn a trick like this without batting an
eye.” The old gentleman, in his above-board, straight-
forward training in powder and shell, was utterly
stunned at the subtle efficiency of the new weapon. He
shook his head slowly and sadly. “The thing’s beyond
me,” he said, then continuing with spirit, “Why dammit,
it’s devilish. Suppose someone had stepped in front of
it,” he was ludicrously indignant, “why, he’d be dead
and nothing left to bury!”

“Imagine a hostile army in front of it,” Prof. Ray-
mond remarked, speaking to him in his own language.
“A sweep from left to right, thirty seconds at most, and
they’d be gone.” '

“Yes, yes, I know,” he replied, and I could see a trou-
bled light in his eyes. “But, by Gad man, I’d never be
the one to turn it on ’em. War is one thing. Out-and-
out slaughter is another. If I wiped out an army that
way, I couldn’t sleep nights afterward !”

One couldn’t help but understand and sympathize
with the man. In common humanity a nation could
scarcely turn loose such a force as this other than as a
last resort. “No, Admiral,” I broke in, “I don’t believe
it will ever be used in that way. Our possession of it
will become known shortly in diplomatic circles, and no
nation will dare attack us with their obsolete bombs and
cannon. It is, in fact, only an insurance policy against
war.” Prof. Raymond nodded agreement with me.

“Um. Well, yes, of course. That’s different,” mut-
tered the old man, a trifle at sea with the innuendoes
of international diplomacy.

“Should the tube be stolen by an enemy,” explained
Lucius, “it would be of little value, since it must be re-

AMAZING STORIES QUARTERLY

571

charged periodically with an element they cannot pos-
sibly detect in the instrument. Within a short time
they will find their stolen tube had become but an ineffi-
cient X-Ray machine and would be valueless until
charged with this gas, the formula of which is now in a
vault at Washington.”

The Twin Ray indeed was remarkable, but it took the
addition of a third element added to the ultra-violet and
infra-red rays to produce the final product called the
Triple Ray. A current from a circuit equal in voltage
to that used in the X-Ray tube was passed through the
metal shield used to “sift” out the X-Rays from the
useless visible violet rays immediately after the mixed
stream of violet and ultra-violet rays have emerged from
the tube itself. It is effective, since the visible rays
cannot penetrate solids while the invisible or X-Rays
find it no barrier to their passage. The current through
the shield gave us, purely by accident, the amazing
Triple Ray.

Lucius Raymond had been using this plate in some
experiment. I cannot now remember what, other than
that it had no bearing on his ray work, and through an
oversight had neglected to disconnect it before placing
it in the machine for filtering. It was a night of un-
usual brilliancy, both moon and stars shining brightly
as I well remember. Through great good luck the ma-
chine was trained through an open window, else it
would have been our last experiment.

W HEN Lucius turned on the “juice” in the tube,
we both received the greatest surprise of our
lives. An intense ray of pure white light sprang from
the nozzle of the machine with a sound like the splitting
of heavy canvas. To the eye it appeared no thicker
than the filament of a seventy-five-watt electric bulb,
but it was incomparably more brilliant.

In the- night sky directly in the path of the ray was
a wisp of cloud. This instantly vanished with a violet
flame and a resounding thunderclap.

Next day the papers mentioned the unseasonable
thunder and lightning. And the following night sev-
eral observatories which chanced to be trained on the
moon discovered an apparent volcanic activity on one
of the lunar mountain peaks. This troubled Prof. Ray-
mond, since by careful calculations he discovered that
it was upon this very part of our satellite that his ma-
chine had been trained. It would appear that the ray
had not ended its career upon destroying the cloudlet
but had continued on into space.

It was a matter of great interest to us to watch this
eruption and calculate how long it would continue. But
there has not in the past ten years been the slightest
abatement in its activity. Such power from an ordi-
nary lighting socket is all but unimaginable. But the
power of the atom is quite beyond the comprehension of
any ordinary person. Indeed, I doubt if Lucius Ray-
mond himself ever fully realized the terrific forces with
which he worked.

But my friend was filled with immeasurable joy at
his success. And I myself fully shared his elation, for
to be even a small participant in the unraveling of the
atom is no small accomplishment.

Prof. Raymond proposed to retire at once to a small
lodge in the mountains, where he often conducted in-
vestigations which required unusual concentration,
since he realized that to continue experiments in a
crowded locality would endanger thousands of lives.

At his lodge Lucius Raymond had installed an unusu-
ally large storage battery, which was charged by utiliz-
ing a turbulent mountain stream which flowed near by.
This was of course indispensable to our work.

A quality of the ray particularly puzzling to us
both was its intense visibility. Both ultra-violet and

infra-red are invisible, and we could not find that the
current through the filter plate added to these should
make them visible in the triple combination.

The explanation was simple and, strangely enough,
occurred to me before it did to Lucius. The ray merely
blasted the air through which it passed, since the at-
mosphere consists of atoms as does every other element.
The bursting of the air atoms also accounted for the
sharp, racketing sound which accompanied the ray.

Still another thing which puzzled us and puzzles me
still is the fact that the ray wouldn’t come anywhere
near the correct figure for light velocity in the tests
Prof. Raymond made. This was later to cause my
friend many a sleepless night as he tossed his long
frame uneasily in his bed, worried and apprehensive of
the fearful force he had unloosed, and which he was
convinced w T as to cause the destruction of the earth and
all his fellow men. This velocity question was in fact
the bottom reason for my friend’s alleged failure as a
scientist. At the time, however, he did not investigate
this phase fui’ther, as he had no accurate light-measur-
ing instruments at the lodge to work with.

Within a few days of our arrival at the lodge we were
notified that the powerful X-Ray tube Lucius had or-
dered was prepared, so accordingly I drove into the city
and got it. We were now ready to experiment on a
large scale.

The first subject my friend chose was a dead tree
upon the summit of a small mountain about three miles
across the valley. Night was chosen as the ideal time
for the experiment, since one could then best focus the
sighting ray, a harmless combination of violet and
ultra-violet, giving a silvery beam of illumination.

The machine was focused through an open window
of the lodge and bearing directly upon the tree. We
ourselves went into an inner room, which had stone
walls three feet thick, where the control switches were
located. The Professor turned the control switch full
into the tube and then, watching the tree from the win-
dow, he quickly closed the switch to the plate for a frac-
tion of a second.

It worked! Indeed yes, it worked beautifully. The
beam cut the air with a deafening blast, though its
diameter was scarcely that of a twenty-five-cent piece.
The tree vanished in a blue flash that surged straight
up to heaven like a volcano. And close upon its going
came a second detonation which threw me heavily
against the wall, while Lucius grasped the window ledge
lest he be pitched bodily through the pane. The lodge
itself, with its granite wall-blocks grating together dis-
agreeably, rocked as if in an earthquake.

When the dust had cleared and I had rubbed some of
the soreness out of a bruised shoulder, I looked and saw
the tree was gone. But that wasn’t all. Directly be-
yond it was a slightly higher mountain formation. The
ray, after dispatching the tree, had not stopped, but had
instead continued and sent the top of the small moun-
tain into eternity! The jagged plateau that had been
leveled still smoked and steamed as we gazed at it. The
silver gleam of the moon cast a weird veil of unreality
over the scene.

Under the light of this same moon my friend land I
immediately set out on a feverish tour of inspection.
We found the tree had vanished without a trace, leaving
a hole where its roots had been. The plateau-top we
found a mass of hardening rock- and sand-lava. It was
fast approaching the consistency of a pavement. Lucius
Raymond pointed out across the center a narrow groove
hollowed out as if by fire which marked the course of
his ray, which had lifted the surrounding mass of earth
as a swift boat will shatter a wave into fragments on
all sides.

The early morning sun was rising when we finally

572

AMAZING STORIES QUARTERLY

returned to the lodge, and while Lucius prepared break-
fast I walked through the wood path to the nearest
road, where the daily paper was left in our mail-box. I
did not pause to open it on the way back, as I was fam-
ished and the thought of food superseded all else for the
moment. Therefore I was taken completely by surprise
at the headlines when I sat down opposite Lucius.
Mount Hanover the night before had blown one-third of
its summit off into space. Great seams had opened in
the earth for miles about its base, and a vast deluge of
melted rock and earth lava had crept down its sides like
wax from a guttering candle. No one could explain the
phenomena, since Mount Hanover was not even of a re-
motely volcanic origin. Experts were then studying
the region to find an explanation for the explosion and
shock which had been of super-volcanic violence and had
even registered on the Washington seismograph.

As I read this aloud a slow suspicion came upon me
and, looking up, I saw a darkening expression come
over Prof. Raymond’s face. He quickly reached into the
table drawer for a map and, reading no more, I joined
him in a careful study of its area. But from the first
there was no doubt in either of our minds. It was with
a sense of resignation that we found that a line drawn
from our lodge through the small hill opposite would
cut squarely into Mount Hanover at a distance of nearly
five hundred miles.

A S a final confirmation, I found a bit further along in
the newspaper article that a number of folks who
had witnessed the phenomena claimed that a strange,
bright circle of light about a. foot in diameter had
marked the mountainside as it exploded. Twelve inches
would have been the approximate spread of cross-
sectional area the beam would have made in that dis-
tance. I could fully sympathize with Lucius’s fervent
“Thank God!” when I read that no lives had been lost,
since the mountain itself was entirely uninhabited.

That was the last of the beam, since the next eleva-
tion of land of any height was too far around the earth’s
circumference to come in range of the ray;_ therefore
the impulse launched itself off into space away from the
world.

Having at last secured an outfit adequate to measure
light with accuracy, Lucius Raymond decided to make
a number of tests that night. However, because of the
destruction of the night before, he dared not focus the
ray horizontally, so it was turned up to the heavens
through a skylight, where it dinned and roared harm-
lessly. At least we supposed it harmless at the time.
We couldn’t know then what a boomerang this universe
of power would become as we let it gush into the sky
for hours! Hours and hours on end, when but a split
second of its force could burst a hill and hurl a moun-
tain!

That night I learned from Lucius of the speed of the
ray. The proof of it was overpowering to me, so incom-
prehensible was its velocity. It made me know a fear
I had never had before — the fear of a man-made mon-
strosity.

The Twin Ray first was measured, and we found that
by some strange and unforeseen property of light its
speed in this joining had been increased not once or
twice, but by the square of its normal speed. The
square of 186,000! One could scarcely believe it —
34,506,000,000 miles in one second of time!

If it was that for the Twin Ray, then what of the
Triple 1 That has never to this day been measured, for
there is no instrument of man’s capable of catching and
recording its swift passage. Truly, it seems to be in
two places at the same time, which of course is impos-
sible. But though Lucius invented instruments of his
own to measure as much as ten times the velocity of the

Twin Ray, it was useless. However, I know that there
was no shadow of doubt in Lucius’s mind but that the
third electrical ingredient gives a speed equal to the
square of the Twin Ray. I do not know by what mathe-
matical process Prof. Raymond arrived at this result.
In his more abstruse calculations I was quite unable to
follow him, as he worked with lightning speed and com-
plete absorption, offering no explanation of any kind as
he worked.

But this speed which later had so important a bearing
upon Lucius’s peace of mind was so far beyond compre-
hension that I will not weary you with the figures, as
they would but string meaninglessly back and forth
across the page and convey no impression to the mind.
Enough to say that it would take nearly as many cen-
turies as the world has existed for a ray of ordinary
light to cover the distance the Triple Ray achieves in
one second of time.

It is my greatest regret that I was called away on
business which has no bearing on this narrative just at
the time Prof. Raymond first perceived the tremendous
interstellar effect of the vast ray discharge he had
loosed. The first intimation I received was a short note
from him delivered at my home. Upon opening it, I
read, “Am going at once to Dudley Observatory. Have
been advised of interstellar phenomena which, I fear,
are results of our experiments,” and at the bottom the
familiar scrawled initials “L. R.”

For some weeks I heard no more from Lucius Ray-
mond. But ludicrously enough there appeared a great
to-do in the meantime over an Englishman who was at-
tempting to solve the atom. This I knew would not fail
to catch Lucius’s eye. Surely enough, in his first letter
following his initial note, he remarked at length about
it, and I was surprised at the bitter tone of his words
as well as their hopeless undertone. I will insert here
this much, to show the harshness which from that time
on claimed my friend’s nature.

“Do you realize, my friend, that it is years since we
perfected our poor little, weak Twin Ray ? I have, since
working here at the observatory, learned that eight
years is judged a long time between discoveries in the
popular scientific world. I myself am indeed classed a
failure, since no one has, of course, ever heard of the
Triple Ray. Nor will anyone ever hear of it, save your-
self, since while here I have made a discovery which is
so portentous that I dare not face it myself until I have
exhausted every experiment and possibility.

“It has been my reluctant duty while here to attend
several so-called ‘polite’ social functions. And I find,
when I am introduced, the same unuttered thoughts
predominating, ‘Poor fellow — a failure now — such a
brilliant start — pity,’ and after I have passed they join
in little groups of two or more for a moment to say (for
I once inadvertently overheard such a group), ‘Yes —
that’s the man, wonderful work — atoms — priceless war
instrument — but burned out now,’ and they revert to
the latest cinema sensation or divorce news. They give
me their maudlin pity, when I alone must strive to save
their skins from an ultimate catastrophe which I fear
we loosed on the world that night with the ray through
the open skylight. Damn their pity!”

Skipping further along through his letter, I will give
his comments on the English scientist: “ — and even
today I saw Sir Ethan Slade’s picture in the papers
(taken at least ten years ago from the appearance) and
read that the King of England has given him a medal ; I
don’t know what sort, as I have no interest in such mat-
ters, simply for his ‘great’ work in unraveling the
mystery of the atom. He expects shortly, by all ac-
counts, to be in a position to release the power itself
from the atom. I am half-minded to send him a cable-
gram of some half dozen or so words and tell him just

V

THE TRIPLE RAY

573

how to do so. But no, that would he merely a silly ges-
ture. Let Sir Slade follow his own course to grief or
otherwise, as time may decide.

“And writing of Sir Slade, I find the editorial writer
has glibly picked up the old, worn-out phrases about
“man harnessing nature’s forces to his will,” only this
time it is “harnessing the atom’s forces to man’s will.”
Rot! I will say plainly, without mincing words, neither
Sir Slade nor any other man will do any ‘harnessing’ of
the atom. Indeed not! The conditions will be quite
reversed. I know.”

One not acquainted with the man could scarcely ap-
preciate the revolt and repulsion with which he must
have received this public pity. It galled him bitterly,
and his consciousness of it colored all his later years
when he lived as a recluse, the while working feverishly
to discover some way to allay the catastrophe which he
was convinced threatened our earth and its people.

My curiosity vastly aroused by his letter, I took the
first opportunity to see my old friend and learn what
discovery had so upset him. Of the truth of his conten-
tions I will say nothing other than that in so far as I
■was able to follow him in his deductions and experi-
ments every fact tends to bear out his theory. His first
discovery at the observatory was that the tremendous
energy released from the mountain lodge, while he was
attempting to measure the speed of the Triple Ray, had
formed into an interstellar ocean of destruction, rush-
ing madly through outer space, engulfing all matter it
encountered and converting it into its own destructive
nature.

It was, indeed, in the very same lodge only a few
days before his death that Lucius, flat on his back from
two strokes which left him paralyzed below the waist,
slowly and carefully explained to me fully for the first
time the exact nature of his discoveries at Dudley. I
will give this in his own words, since it is thus that I
best remember what he said to me.

“I had always suspected that those cold caverns be-
yond the sky were not the straightforward vacuums
they appeared to be. Had I given this a second thought
that night, I would surely never have turned my ray
upon them for hours as I did. I realized shortly my
mistake.

“Within a few days astronomers noted an epidemic
of hitherto unsuspected dark meteors near the earth
suddenly bursting into flame, then dying out. After
the meteors the epidemic spread to a few dead stars
farther on, but still in relatively close proximity to the
earth. In all my following of the astronomers their
observations have covered a period of more than ten
years. And in all that time I have been able to see
the work my ray did in the smallest, the most minute

fraction of its first second of existence. This is because
the light from the exploding stars has taken such a time
in its comparatively slow pace to come back to the
earth, the source of the ray.

“It is for this reason that I cannot say how far in
space the thing has traveled nor where it may be now.
But this I do know and have proven many times over.
The ray is traveling, not in a straight line after all, but
instead in a closed circle, and must by every law of
mathematics return again to its beginning. And since
I have been able to learn by experiment that it renews
and increases itself by that which it destroys, I have no
particle of doubt in my mind but that upon its return
to the earth our planet will be utterly annihilated.

“The circle is vast, I know, for it was months after I
first began to trace its course on an astronomical map
that I was able to detect the slight deviation of the arc.
It must travel the very fringes of the known stellar
spaces where it takes light a thousand million years but
to cross. Yet so terrific is the ray’s speed that it may
carry it round and back, I fear, in a lifetime; perhaps
less. And no sight of its return will give warning, since
it precedes its own light as lightning seems to precede
thunder. It is, in short, a natural force which will
surely ride the universe until all active matter has come
within its circle, as it must some time, and has been
destroyed. And even then it will circle on when all time
has ceased to be. Perhaps it will finally be the birth
itself of a new and different universe. I do not know.

“And this strange curving of a straight ray into a
circle; how to account for it? It is but recently that a
daring scientist advanced a theory of ‘spherical space,’
whereby he mathematically proved that a straight line
extended into the heavens will finally return to its
source, even as a straight line extended upon the surface
of the earth will do likewise. It is, you see, the nature
of space and is inevitable. Safety alone lies in the
immense circumference of this spherical void occupied
by the stellar system.

“But I am sick to death of the sympathy of people I
have no longer any pity for. Indeed, if I have failed,
it is from being too successful. I have given up my
search for an antidote to offset the ray’s return, for I
have concluded that there is none. The thing is in-
vincible and once started may never be stopped. It be-
comes indestructible in its destroying power. A mad
and unbelievable thing which nonetheless exists. I will
not attempt to fight it longer. I am too tired. It is
more than one man alone can do.”

I left my friend Lucius Raymond then, with the light
of genius burning dim in his eyes. And when I re-
turned next day he was dead. A man whose success
was failure, whose failure was success.

The End

574

AMAZING STORIES QUARTERLY

The Black Star Passes

By John W. Campbell, Jr.

( Continued from, page 523)

the void of space. Long ages it would take to make
this trip, but they need not worry on that score. Long
ages had already passed as their dark planet swung
through the void, what difference if they were accom-
panied by a dead star?

True, the star they were to go toward was a double

The

star; their planet could not find orbits about it, but
they might remedy that — they could hurl the one half
of the star into the other, if they thought that best,
or they might tear it completely free and make the star
a single star.

But they would escape this dead sun.

End.

A Modern Prometheus

By Cyril G. Wates

( Continued from page 491)

away. As they descend the winding, flower-covered
pathway from the Temple, the sun plunges into the
ocean, flinging up a spray of silver stars.

Presently they come to a spot where two mighty
palms raise their fronded heads into the night. Between
them, almost hidden beneath a tangle of odorous Ste-
phanotis, lies a tablet of white ferrolith, on which, in
letters of Florium, a simple inscription is faintly visible
in the gloom.

In Memory
of

Wahkola Kana
Who was called Enceladus
“He gave his life for a friend.”

Ralph’s arm tightens around his companion.

“He did more than that, my Flower,” he says, softly.
“He broke the bonds of science and set the whole
world free.”

The End.

Boomeranging ’Round the Moon

By David H, Keller, M. D.

( Continued from page 528)

it to him at the last moment, with the comment that it
contained some final instructions in regard to the ma-
chinery. Tearing the seal off he read :

“My dear Mr. Hill:

“When you read about boomerangs, why did you
not pay more attention to the fact that there were
two kinds? One is a return and the other is a non-
return. It all depends upon the curves of the sur-
faces. Frankly, I was tired of your constantly
being between Dorothy and myself; so, I made the
blueprints with the shape fixed so you never would
come back. Good-bye. I hope you have a good
time. “As ever, Smithson.”

“That certainly was an oversight on my part,” sighed
Hill. “I guess I will sail around for a few years and

The

then die. Poor Dorothy. I am sorry I quarreled with
her last evening. She never will know how much I
loved her.”

“Yes, she will!” replied a woman’s voice, and there
was Dorothy.

“Oh! Sweetheart!” said Hill, taking her in his arms.
“You ought not to have done this. Smithson put the
curves the wrong way, and we are never going to get
back to earth again.”

“You mean we are just going to go on — and on — and
on by ourselves, forever — just by ourselves?”

“Something like that.”

“I think that will be too lovely for words, Henry,”
said Dorothy De Loach as she held him tightly to her
and started to kiss him.

End.

Dr. Immortelle

By Kathleen Ludwick

( Continued, from page 569)

cisco. There was no moon. The waters of the Bay
were like a pool of black ink in which the vari-colored
lights of the ships were reflected. To the south, a
huge electric sign showed blood-colored through the
smoke of some giant smokestack where men toiled in
the sweat of their brows “to make the world safe for
Democracy!”

A wisp of smoke from a passing steamer was

The

wrapped around the Ferry tower, almost concealing it,
and above it the light on its summit shone like a sym-
bol of Hope; but the Germans bombed the Red Cross
tent where Linnie ministered to the sorely wounded!
Although I escaped alive from the hell of the Argonne,
I lie here almost as helpless" as Victor de Lyle when I
saw him last, longing for the time when my soul shall
be reunited with its mate.

End.

575

Editorials from Our Readers

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editors believe that their mission is complete when they select and edit stories that go into the making of this magazine. On the
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magazine, and as to scientifiction in general, are not only valuable, but are original and instructive as well. For that reason it has been
decided to print the best letter — about 500 words — which can be used as an editorial, on the editorial page and to award a prize of $50.00
for any letter so printed.

The letters which do not win the Quarterly prize, but which still have merit, will be printed in the “Editorials from Our Readers”
Department, newly created in this magazine.

Laudatory letters containing flattering remarks about the stories themselves, or of the magazine, _ are not acceptable for the editorial
page. We want inspiring or educational letters, embodying material which can be used as an editorial along scientifiction themes.

Remember, it is the idea that counts. A great literary effort is not necessary, as the editors reserve the right to edit all letters
received in order to make them more presentable for publication.

Remember, too, that anyone can enter this contest.

This contest will end with the Winter Quarterly. Contest for next issue closes the 20th of the second month preceding date of issue
— viz. — contest closing date for the next issue is the 20th of Novem her.

Forecasts

W HAT will the world be like 100 years
from today?

Such a question, familiar to all in these
days of speculation concerning the future,
was answered in a St. Louis newspaper,
on February 19th, 1886, by an anonymous
writer who gave a list of developments to
be expected in that period.

His predictions appeared incredibly wild
to his contemporaries — but already, less
than 50 years later, one-third of them are
commonplace matters with us. To this ex-
tent his list furnishes an object lesson in
the practical value, for governments and
corporationSi of forecasts based upon
shrewd and rational analyses of present
trends.

Here is what he correctly forecast :

( 1 ) Flying_ machines carrying heavy
weights and freight; (2) general knowl-
edge of world events on the day they
occur; (3) distribution of the world’s
news, with sound and picture, through a
Photophone; (4) formation of a League
of Nations (yes, that is what he called it) ;
(5) formation of a World Court to settle
international disputes.

Now what did he predict that has yet to
come true?

(1) Abandonment of roads, made un-
necessary by aerial transportation; (2)
aerial mail delivery by parachute at each
door, and the elimination of post offices ;
(3) houses built of paper and equipped
with aluminum and glass ; (4) easy com-
munication with other planets; (5) 94
states in the United States, stretching from
Panama to Alaska; (6) complete abolition
of standing armies; (7) amendment of the
Constitution so that Congress meets once
every ten years, and can pass no laws
which may not be repealed immediately;
(8) extension of average length of life to
eighty years, with some individuals living
to be 200 or over; (9) evolution of ani-
mals so that dogs may be made to think ;
(10) elimination of vagabondage with
even.’ one contributing to society.

These two lists are interesting objects
of study.

In general, any forecaster is on sure
grcund in predicting inventive develop-
ments, for such developments seem to be
limitless. The incidental effects of such
inventions, however, are problematical. Our
St. Louis writer correctly predicted aerial
transportation — but his enthusiasm unbal-
anced his good sense w’hen he anticipated
delivery of mail by parachute! And al-
though roads may be abandoned some day,
it is doubtful if another hundred years,
even, will find them entirely discarded.

When, however, any would-be fore-
caster begins dealing with government or
politics, he should go cautiously, for, while
each new invention Or discovery in the
field of material research results in two
others, which in turn give rise to four,
and so on, yet such) a condition is not a
characteristic of any\society known to his-

l , -

tory. It is obvious to any casual student
that the science of government has not
improved in the same degree as the facility
with which new inventions may be per-
fected.

Even more egregrious errors are made
when the forecaster, carried away by a
commendable — and, one may hope, justi-
fiable — enthusiasm for the future of the
race, predicts favorable developments in
man’s physical, mental and social nature.
Even more remote, than in the fields of
politics or government are the chances that
predictions of such nature will come to
pass within less than centuries. New in-
ventions, new chemical combinations, have
a direct commercial value that every man
with money to invest is eager to promote,
and these discoveries find direct and im-
thediate application.

Improved laws, or beneficial changes in
government are sometimes made after over-
coming public inertia or private greed, but
even then it is sometimes a matter of dec-
ades before it is certain whether or not
they really do represent advances. But
changes in the actual physical and mental
constitution of mankind have in the past
required long ages to take place — or else
some fundamental alteration of environ-
ment, diet, or habits of living. Would the
mere knowledge of the good results from
such alteration produce the change? Not
necessarily! Diphtheria anti-toxin will in
time wipe out that dread disease of child-
hood — but there are innumerable parents
who, because of religious sensibilities, fear,
or merely slackness, keep this protection
from their children.

Human beings are, according to their
several natures, mean, lazy, noble, indus-
trious, kindly, cruel, savage, mild. Thus
they have been for uncounted ages, and
thus they will remain for ages to come
unless — what ?

A year or two ago a magazine writer
hazarded the query whether the age of
superdevelopment in mechanical and ma-
terial matters would not be succeeded by
an equally astonishing development of ex-
periment, knowledge and achievement along
lines of human betterment — of the rela-
tions of one man to another, in every as-
pect of his daily life.

This is an arresting thought. The age
of the Romans was one of conquest and
consolidation. When the world finally re-
adjusted itself after their empire had
crashed, its energies were absorbed in dis-
covering and developing new lands in an
age of exploration. The age of invention
followed — and now perhaps we are about
to enter the age of humanity. But it will
take the entire energies of our civiliza-
tion, now bent with every fibre to the
conquest of matter in all its material
forms, to achieve the slightest victory in
the war on “man’s inhumanity to man.”

And if this writer may be allowed a
prediction of his own, it will not be until
the problem of universal, inexhaustible,

free-as-air power is solved, that the full
force of the genius of mankind will be de-
voted to solving the even more difficult
problem of guaranteeing “life, liberty and
the pursuit of happiness” to every living
creature. And whether that day dawns
soon or late, in one decade (as it might)
or in ten times ten decades, dawn it will,
unless the folly of man shall have plunged
his own civilization into wrack and ruin
by the cleverness of his creative genius.

Frederick M. Clouter,

104 Greaton Road,
West Roxbury, Mass.

Ad Astra Per Aspera
“OILENT upon a peak in Darien,”
O stout Balboa, the pioneer, gazed upon
an undreamed-of heritage vaster and of
greater variety that the boldest mind could
have realized, and so it is with the whole
v/orld today. We have a great and high
destiny before us, a realm of power and
splendor of which we know but the bor-
der, the resources of which we cannot
guess, any more than the Piltdown man
visualized television, or the luminous crea-
tures of the ocean deeps think of the
glories of the upper world actually above
them. More than to any other branches of
literature, with their tales of past and
present, the future is the happy-hunting-
ground of scientifiction. It has a dual pur-
pose, that of warning against misuse of
power and that of pointing the way —
to the stars though the way be rough. It
is unfortunate, however, that so many
authors of scientifiction seem to revel in
the grotesque, in wars, in the unbeautiful,
in absurd caricatures of men, in a wider
scope for brutality. Surely, the aim of
scientifiction, should be the dissemination
of idealistic hope, as well as the warning.
And even those who gratify our eternal
springs of hope with Utopias, still con-
fine them to limited areas, to remote
distances and other restrictions. There
is a legend that far away is a great rock,
a cube of one hundred miles, upon which,
once in a thousand years, a little bird wipes
its beak. When the rock is worn away, an
instant of time has elapsed. Since the
earliest dawn of civilization, the rock has
been visited ten times. Undeniably in that
short time many evils born of ignorance
have been eradicated, and many ideals real-
ized by knowledge. It is not unreasonable to
expect this to continue, accelerating
even, until the rock is worn away, then
will the ultimate star of our heritage be
attained. Therefore let us have stories
of hope, not for bounded localities or dis-
tant worlds, but for the whole of our own
planet and every individual upon it, when
the time comes. Let us have stories of the
science which shall achieve this, let us
have stories of beauty, romance, and peace,
let us always keep as our watchword, “Ad
Astra Per Aspera To the stars, though
the way be rough.

Howard M. Stabbs,

Inwood, Manitoba, Canada.

576

AMAZING STORIES QUARTERLY

HOW TO OBTAIN

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designed to improve the shape of
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Dept. 151 Binghamton. N. Y.

The

Most Interesting
Evening
I Ever Spent

U

P TILL 9 o’clock the party
was a complete flop. Then
Tom walked in, Tom’s a live
wire, if there ever was one.

He said he’d heard about a one-
man show anyone could perform
with the help of a book he knew
about. He had sent for that book,
and said he was going to put on the
show.

We thought he was joking and laughed
at him, but he sat us all down in the
living room, got out a pack of old playing
cards, and started to do things that made
our eyes pop out of our heads.

For over 2 hours he made those play-
ing cards almost talk. What he could do
with those cards just didn’t seein human.
After it was all over, the gang all
crowded, around, shaking his hand, and
patting him on the back. The girls all
said, “Oh, Tom ! You’re wonderful !” It
was by far the most interesting evening
I had ever spent.

I asked him how he learned it all. For
answer he pulled out a shiny new . quar-
ter, and said that one just like it had
taught him every trick he had showed us.

And it was a fact! Tom had simply
enclosed a quarter with the coupon below,
and gotten Walter Gibson’s Famous Book
of Popular Card Tricks by return mail.
. You, too, can entertain yourself and your
friends with the 101 card tricks it teaches.
No sleight of hand is necessary — no hard
work to learn. Simply read the book
carefully and you can do every trick in it.

And it costs only 25c! Send for it
today. The demand is great, and we only
have a few hundred on- hand.

MAIL COUPON BELOW!

Radio-Science Publications, Inc.

Dept. 2210, 381 Fourth Ave., New York, N. Y.

I enclose 25c (in stamps or coin) in full
payment for Walter Gibson’s Book of Popular
Card Tricks, which, it is understood, will be
sent me by return mail.

Name

Street and No.
City .

State

Y our Viewpoint

Notes on the Spring Quarterly

Editor, Amazing Stories Quarterly:

As a regular reader of Amazing Stories since
No. 1 of Vol. 1 first made its appearance, I am
for the first time submitting my opinions.. The
first part of the above sentence is sufficient proof
that my general opinion is exceedingly favorable,
although I have my pet peeves and partialities.

I have just finished the Spring Quarterly, so I
will confine my criticisms to it. Incidentally, these
criticisms are purely personal ideas, as my scien-
tific knowledge closely approaches zero as a limit.

"After 12,000 Years” certainly adds nothing
to the good reputation of Mr. Coblentz as an
author. After a fair start, he drops the scientific
side entirely, leaving merely an old plot, poorly
held together. It makes a poor foundation for his
satire of possible evolution from the present types.

Apparently there has been no advance in science
outside of the entomological field, except for
skipped over mention of tide harnessing machinery
and the description of their vehicles. That, and
the illogically operating machines for testing the
body, are even worse than Wells in "The Sleeper
Awakes.” Considering the present trend of power
and engineering toward electricity .and its kindred
forces, I can not imagine the general use of internal
combustion engines of a type apparently but
slightly advanced from the present, even 1,200
years hence, much less 12,000. But I*m wasting
time. My summary is simply that the story is
entirely unworthy of its author.

"Locked Worlds” is rather unique, offers many
possibilities and could have an interesting sequel.

"The Cry From the Ether” is excellent, though
I hesitate to call it better than “The Beast-Men
of Ceres.” Too bad Septama is only human, for
with his present quality I could read much more
than he could write, and I venture to say that I
share the general opinion.

"The City of Eric” is quite good and should
produce some really interesting sequels.

The only small flaw which I shall mention is
not in the stories, but in the comment upon our
(readers’) opinions.

It is rather amusing to note in the comment on

the letter of Clifton that the Editor says

in closing, "However, there is one remark we
must make which is that science is advancing,
changing from day to day, so you should not be
so positive in your points of view.” On the next
page, answering the letter of Donald G. Allen,
and speaking of making artificial diamonds, he
concludes with: . . and certainly one of any

size could not be made artificially.” Considering
the nature of the subject, it is quite apparent that
"at present” and "can” should be substituted for
"certainly” and "could,” even without his own
previous admonition.

This is enough for one waste basket, so I’ll sign
off after asking what has happened to the authors
of "The Moon Pool” and "Skylark of Space,” the
two best stories youl have ever published?

Robert S. McCready,

3120 Warder St., N. W., Washington, D. C.

(This letter speaks for itself. We only have to
say about the making of a large diamond artificially
that the word "could” takes care of the state-
ment just as well as the amended version which
you suggest. Under present conditions of knowl-
edge, a large diamond cannot be made artificially.
The word "could” is not a future auxiliary. There
are many more stories coming by the authors you
like. — Editor.)

Suggestion About Artists

Editor, Amazing Stories Quarterly:

I have just finished reading the Summer edition
of youcr Amazing Stories Quarterly.. I have
no complaints to make. The paper used was very
good and helped make Amazing Stories better.
Just a word about your art staff. I noticed several
drawings in the Quarterly by different artists,
but none by Paul.

I would like to suggest to you that you try and
procure the services of:

John Richard Flanagan, the illustrator of "The
Day the World Ended” in Colliers Weekly. I
ara sure that you will like his work.

D. Friedman,

675 E. 170th St., New York, N. Y.

(We are . delighted to hear criticisms of our
different artists. We are gradually getting to-
gether a staff of men whose work we believe will

do justice to the very excellent literary produc-
tions of our authors. The many letters we receive
tell us that Amazing Stories is liked by our
readers. They like the illustrations and the
general get-up of the magazine, so we will be
very slow about making any change except when
we feel assured that it is for the better.— -Editor.)

A Lot of Criticism of the Cover
Illustration of the Quarterly

Editor, Amazing Stories Quarterly;

I take the attitude of lots of the readers who
write you in regard to the cover of Amazing
Stories. I think I can tell you exactly what it is
that they want in a cover. My experience as a
newspaper and magazine editor, student and a
reader of your magazine puts me in a little better
position to explain myself than most readers, I
presume.

I find that I, and the other average persons want
art, color, and the medium combination in a cover.
They are with a cover on this type of a magazine
a3 they are with a lady: In a lady, they admire

color, combination, and just enough flapperish to
sweeten ’em: in Amazing Story magazine, they
want color, combination, and just enough gaudi-
ness or loudness to sweeten it.

Looking at the magazine from the street show
window, if one’s not acquainted with the high-class
articles inside, one naturally thinks that he’s run-
ning into a cheap brand of hair-raising articles cov-
ering crafty murders, and amazing stories of life,
not so much advanced from the "Diamond Dick”
and his day class.

Yes: I think as some of your readers: The

cover doesn’t give credit to the high class scien-
tifiction inside. The class of people who read this
magazine are conservative business men. students,
knowledge-thirsty youths, scientists and the deeper
and saner men of the world. They don’t want
something too bizarre or gaudy-looking when they
purchase a magazine to be used and seen in their
offices and homes.

I am herewith enclosing some pen and pencil
sketches to better illustrate just what I mean and
just what I think the cover-complaining readers,
■who have written about the matter, mean.

I’ve been a little exacting in the drawing of
number one, but I think the coloring and ornaments
help the eye to grasp the whole thing better. With
a three or four colored picture similar to some of
the late editions of the magazine, with a two color
name-plate across the top, and with the authors’
names in black or dark color on a white background
I think you would have a combination of beauty and
art to please anyone. Just the little matter of giv-
ing a margin between the edge of cover and pic-
ture robs a cover of some of its "cheap” look.

I think a vote of your readers would show pos-
sibly 75 per cent, favoring the word "Scientifiction”
prominently displayed with the regular head.
"Scientifiction” would be a far better name for the
magazine, but it’s now too late to fret about that —
and I’m supposed to be "suggesting” covers only.

Change of prominent colors; from a vivid hue
one month to a somber or milder hue, or even dark
featured, the next month — in connection with a
few permissible movements and changes of forms
— would give a very vivid and pleasing individual-
ity to each month’s cover.

A big change could be made by shifting a little.
Another noticeable difference could be made by
putting the names of authors on white margin below
"cut” and using all of upper space for picture or
"cut” — and giving it a generous margin all around.

I feel that such a change as I’ve penned here
would give your readers just about what they
want. I am the average reader and that’s what
I want.

I hope these suggestions are accepted in just
the mutual way I have offered them.

N. E. Knapp,
Alliance, Nebraska.

(We have an excellent staff of artists and they
are personally interested in the particular type of
work, which Amazing Stories exacts. Your
sketches are very interesting and suggestive. The
primary idea of the cover is to, attract the eye of
the observer, who is looking at the multitude or
magazines displayed on the news-stands. The
greatest attention is given to the art value of the
work, and it is criticized vigorously before ac-
ceptance. You have probably noticed that our
covers of recent issues Lave been far from lurid
or gaudy in coloring. The illustrations on the
cover are in the fullest 'sense exact in detail and
scientifically correct. — Editor.)

This Big Book of

44 POPULAR
CARD TRICKS”

with 6 months of

AMAZING
STORIES

All for Only $1

Read This Account of the Mos
Interesting Evening We Ever Spent

U P till 9 o’clock the party was a complete flop.
Nobody seemed to be able to get things going.
Then Tom walked in. Tom’s a live wire, if there
ever was one.

He said he'd heard about a one man show anyone
could perform with the help of a book he knew about.
He had sent for that book, and said he was going to
put on the show.

We thought he was joking, and laughed at him; hut
he sat us all down in the living-room, got out a pack of
old playing cards, and started to do things that made
our eyes pop out of our heads.

For over 2 hours he made those playing cards almost
talk. Amazing predictions, mysteries, thought antici-
pations, invisible passages, etc.! What he could do
with those cards just didn't seem human. After it was
all over, the gang crowded around, shaking his hand
and patting him on the back. The girls all said, “Oh,
Tom! You’re wonderful!” It was by far the most
interesting evening I had ever spent.

We asked him how he learned it all, for we knew he
didn’t know a single thing about card tricks a short
time before. For answer lie said that he had discov-
ered Walter Gibson’s Famous Book of Popular Card
Tricks and it had taught him every trick he had
showed us.

And it was a fact! You, too, can entertain yourself
and your friends with the 101 card tricks this mar-
velous hook teaches. No sleight of hand is necessary —

Simply Mail Coupon NOW !

no hard work to learn. Simply read the hook care-
fully and you can do every trick in it.

Complete Book Yours FREE
If You Act. PROMPTLY!

Thousands have paid a good substantial sum for this
big hook of POPULAR CARD TRICKS, and have been
more than repaid by countless evenings of delightful
fun and entertainment. BUT — we want to send you
your copy ENTIRELY FREE, prepaid! And at the
same time enter your subscription for six big issues of
AMAZING STORIES, $1.50 regular value, for only
$ 1 . 00 !

You get the Gift Volume of “POPULAR CARD
TRICKS” ABSOLUTELY FREE, and AMAZING
STORIES for two extra months virtually WITHOUT
COST! But you must act at once — WHILE WE STILL
HAVE BOOKS IN STOCK!

AMAZING STORIES, Dept. 2210,

381 Fourth Avenue, New York, N. Y.

Gentlemen: Send me, ENTIRELY FREE, prepaid, the complete

big book of “POPULAR CARD TRICKS" by Walter Gibson:
and enter my subscription for the next Six Big Issues of AMAZ-
ING STORIES at only SI, which I enclose. I understand you
will promptly refund my SI anti I may keep the book if I am
not more than satisfied.

Name

Address

City & State

With 6 Months

CjjfeiClftC# mm§

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BUT — we have arranged to ship you this
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But don’t delay! To get the book FREE
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TION virtually WITHOUT COST, mail
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hand!

Mail Gift Coupon NOW!

SCIENCE & INVENTION, Dept. 2210 I

381 Fourth Avenue, New York, N. Y. |

Gentlemen: Ship me, ENTIRELY FREE, prepaid, the valuable

handy book, “HOW TO MAKE IT— WRINKLES, KINKS, FORMU-
LAS” — and enter my subscription for the next Six Big Issues of
SCIENCE & INVENTION at only $1, which I enclose. I understand
you will promptly refund my $1 and I may keep the book if I am not
more than satisfied.

Name

Address

City’ and State